Renegades (Rage Against the Machine album)

The album's cover art is a parody of the pop art work LOVE by Robert Indiana, with the word "love" replaced with "rage" and the letter G at the bottom left corner slanted (in the original sculpture, the slanted letter O is at the top right corner). 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. The album's packaging also 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.

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	78/100[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Alternative Press	[4]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[5]
Melody Maker	[6]
Mojo	[7]
NME	8/10[8]
Q	[6]
Rolling Stone	[1]
Select	[9]
Spin	7/10[6]

Renegades received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 78 based on 26 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim."[2] AllMusic critic John Bush wrote that the record "works well with just a bare few exceptions, in part because Rage Against the Machine is both smart enough to change very little and talented enough to make the songs its own."[3] Alternative Press described the record as "a tour through three decades of sonic recalcitrance" and "the genome map of seditious sound."[4] Entertainment Weekly's Rob Brunner described the record's sound as "a remarkably diverse, if not exactly surprising, mix of heavy rock, hip hop and protest music," while remarking that it "would still be a raging success even if this disc does nothing but introduce a new generation to the joys of Bob Dylan and Minor Threat."[5]

On Renegades, Mojo has remarked: "This crisp, Rick Rubin-produced outing packs away a machine that was well-oiled to the last."[7] Kitty Empire of NME labeled the record as "a brilliant archaeology" and "a sonic history lesson".[8] Rolling Stone critic Tom Moon believed that the band executed "diverse tracks" such as Bruce Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad", the Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man", Afrika Bambaataa's "Renegades of Funk" and Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" with "the roaring, fearless spirit that’s been missing in action since these songs were new,"[1] while Select regarded it as the band's "most satisfying record since their debut."[9]

Best Buy limited edition Limited edition albums sold at Best Buy contained a bonus disc with live recordings of "People of the Sun" and "No Shelter". The songs were later released as part of Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in 2003, as was "Kick Out the Jams (live)".

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rage Against the Machine.

• Renegades at AllMusic
• Renegades at Discogs (list of releases)