Rush released after the late-2000 split between Zack de la Rocha and the rest of Rage Against the Machine, the covers album Renegades salutes the band's musical and philosophical roots, ranging from the old-school Bronx to the hard-rockin' Motor City to protest-central Greenwich Village to gangsta-ridden L.A. As could be expected, the set works best when the group focuses on material from its most recent forebears: rappers and hardcore bands. Indeed, Renegades begins with a pair of powerful hip-hop covers -- Eric B & Rakim's "Microphone Fiend" and Volume 10's "Pistol Grip Pump" -- that spotlight Rage's immense strengths: Tom Morello's clean, heavy riffing and vocalist de la Rocha's finely tuned spray of vitriol, just this side of self-righteous. Another hip-hop blast (and the one closest to home), Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill a Man," is even more devastating, an easy pick for the highlight of the album. Listeners familiar with the originals, however, may have trouble with Rage's covers of EPMD's "I'm Housin'," the Stones' "Street Fighting Man," and Dylan's "Maggie's Farm," a trio of original versions whose anger and emotion were conveyed more in the lyrics than the performances. Still, drummer Brad Wilk sets an appropriately frenetic hardcore tempo for the excellent version of Minor Threat's "In My Eyes," and de la Rocha stretches out well on the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams." With just a bare few excepions, Renegades works well, in part because Rage Against the Machine is both smart enough to change very little and talented enough to make the songs its own. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
Rage Against the Machine (Arranger), Rage Against the Machine (Producer), Rage Against the Machine (Main Performer), Rage Against the Machine (Art Direction), Zack de la Rocha (Vocals), Nick DiDia (Engineer), Vladimir Meller (Mastering), Darren Mora (Assistant Engineer), Tom Morello (Guitar), Brendan O'Brien (Producer), Rick Rubin (Arranger), Rick Rubin (Producer), Rick Rubin (Art Direction), Rick Rubin (Production Consultant), David Schiffman (Engineer), Mike Scotella (Assistant Engineer), Jim Scott (Engineer), Amery AWOL Smith (Crew), Tim Commerford (Bass), Rich Veltrop (Assistant Engineer), Brad Wilk (Drums), D. Sardy (Mixing), Aimee MacAuley (Art Direction), Greg Fidelman (Digital Editing), Rich Costey (Mixing), Marc Moreau (Digital Editing), Martin Richardson (Crew), Armando García (Crew), Lindsay Chase (Production Coordination), Katy Teasdale (Assistant Engineer), Geoff Walcha (Assistant Engineer), Scott Hobbs (Crew), Vlado Meller (Mastering), Brian Benjamin (Crew), Big Pete (Crew), Conrad Corizz (Crew), Ford Englerth (Crew)
Renegades is the first cover album and the latest studio album by American rap metal band Rage Against the Machine. The album consists entirely of cover songs and includes covers of artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Minor Threat, Eric B. & Rakim, EPMD, MC5, the Rolling Stones, Cypress Hill, and Devo. It was released in 2000, after Rage singer Zack de la Rocha had already left the band, but featured his vocals. After the release of Renegades, the remaining three members of the band reformed with Chris Cornell on vocals as Audioslave. Rage did, however, release another album, Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium, a live recording of their final two concerts in Los Angeles on September 12 and 13, 2000. The bonus live version of "Kick Out the Jams" on the European version of this album also appears on Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium.
The cover art is a parody of the iconic pop art work LOVE by Robert Indiana. The album shipped with four different versions of the cover: either red lettering with black and either blue or green background, or with the red and black switched. (see infobox for images).
The album artwork includes a poem by Josh Koppel. The artwork ends with a photograph of an American one dollar bill with the message "YOU ARE NOT A SLAVE" written on the back.
