Zack is on the list for the "Party of 2000" in the latest Rolling Stone. I'm not sure what the "Party of 2000" really is, or if Zack's presence on the list is significant, but it has a good caption from Zack regarding the state of hip-hop:

"I was listening to hip-hop early on, growing up in both East Los Angeles and Orange County, and I had a lot of white friends who refused to talk to me the second I put on an ADIDAS sweat suit and was breaking, or when I was walking through campus with my radio, playing Eric B. and Rakim, and LL Cool J and De La Soul. To so many whites then, it was just noise. To me, it was people reclaiming their dignity.

"I think power is the ability to define phenomena. And hip-hop is a way in which young people, mostly poor and black and mejicanos, were able for the first time to describe their experiences. It was a form of resistance - about community, about getting out to the park, picking up a microphone and rockin' it.

"Culturally, what has happened to hip-hop is disturbing - the kind of deep materialism running through the songs, the fuck-everything-but-what's-good-for-me thing. I've always thought that if Reagan was a rapper, he'd be in Puff Daddy's crew. One of the things that keeps the engine of capitalism going is the idea that freedom is equated with your ability to buy products. People feel that their humanity is reflected somehow in the products that they buy. You are what you accrue. Hip-hop has gone from challenging people and engaging in dialogue to encouraging them to buy more, to be more productive consumers. And that's been very sad to watch.

"That is something I hope Rage Against the Machine is a part of changing. And I think people are going to see through that superficiality. There are a number of groups - Company Flow, Arsonists - who are seeing hip-hop again as a vehicle by which to engage in things that are substantial in people's lives, not to push this whole jiggy mentality. "

RATM, and The Battle of Los Angeles, were number 1 on a list of "The Best of 1999". TIME's reasoning: "Because Tom Morello--who can make his guitar sound like a harmonica, a pair of turntables or a street uprising--is the most thrilling guitarist in rock today. Because rapper-singer Zack de la Rocha mixes poetry and polemics into song lyrics that would do Chuck D or Bob Dylan proud. Because in a year in which a riot of rockers copped beats from hip-hop, no other band made the rap-rock union resonate with such ferocity and intelligence." Check the entire list here. (Thanks to David)

RATM.com has posted some new European tour dates:

01/28/00	London, England	Wembley Arena
01/30/00	Brussels, Belgium	Forest National
01/31/00	Hamburg, Germany	Sporthalle
02/01/00	Rotterdam, Holland	Ahoy Halle
02/03/00	Paris, France	Zenith
02/04/00	Dusseldorf, Germany	Philipshalle
02/06/00	Berlin, Germany	Arena
02/07/00	Munich, Germany	Zenith
02/08/00	Ljubljana, Slovenia	Halle Tivoli
02/10/00	Zurich, Switzerland	Hallenstadion
02/11/00	Montpelier, France	Zenith
02/13/00	San Sebastian, Spain	Plaza de Toros
02/14/00	Madrid, Spain	La Cubierta
02/15/00	Barcelona, Spain	Palais dels Esports
02/17/00	Rome, Italy	Paleur
02/18/00	Milan, Italy	Fila Forum

According to an e-mail from RATMdirect.com, "Sleep Now in the Fire" is the new single. Contradicting information states that "Calm Like a Bomb" is the new single. Any official news would be appreciated.

RATM was been mentioned in TIME magazine recently, in an article about the WTO protests in Seattle, WA. Though the WTO article does not mention RATM specifically, they use the band's name for the cultural term of resistence in the title. In the same issue, in the "Arts" section, there is an article about Bob Marley, and it mentions Rage stating Marley as an influence. (Thanks to Dan Cassar)