I own this CD, and it sucks. The only good song is this one.

i had to do this for english!
ahahhaa

The song ‘Renegades of Funk’ by Rage against the Machine portrays the concept of change strongly through its lyrics. It is about how much the world has changed because of people who stood up for their rights and fought for what they believed in for example the Malcolm X reference, an American Black Muslim Minister Malcolm X who stood up against the governments views. This is obvious in the lines ‘...there were always renegades, Like Chief Sitting Bull, Tom Paine, Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X’ who were all responsible for change or revolution in their own time, eg Dr Martin Luther Kings fundamental work for the rights of black people in the 1960s. The band is relating themselves to these people to show that they are also standing up for something, in this case being the genre ‘funk’.
There is obvious rhyme ‘poppin, sockin, rockin’, repetition is used throughout most of the song for example in the chorus with the line ‘We’re the renegades of funk’. There is some alliteration in the line ‘musical mission’ which also implies that they are on a mission as if they feel it is their duty to bring funk upon the world. It is their self-set, self-determined mission following in the footsteps of the people who also set themselves missions on what they wanted the world to become, eg Tom Paine who was known as "The Father of the American Revolution". The instruments used in this song collaboratively define the songs genre as ‘funk’. In particular the artificial sounding highly strung guitar sounds combined with the constant bongos create a contrast between the past and present. With a deep baseline throughout the entire song and the background noises of bongo drums and modern day drums, the song is very catchy and also helps tell the story as the music progresses. There is also a possible biblical reference when ‘A new musical revelation’ is mentioned in the song, saying that they think they will be remembered forever, like those in the book of revelation.
The tone of the song could be described as informative, it uses informal language, an almost conversational style, very genuine and slightly demanding. The mood created is that of intrigue because it makes you interested in this new genre called funk, you think it must be something of high importance for someone to write a song about it. There is a lot of respect for the people who they gave reference to, you can tell because the band is comparing themselves to them meaning that they look up to them. They are the ones who tried to change the world in the past eg Chief Sitting Bull who was killed because he was part of a rebellion against the white Americans who didn’t want him too influence the other American Indians to go against the American government,. They refer to the world today as the ‘atomic age’ because of the now violent nature of human society, with world wars and atomic weapons, how we have slowly become worse over time. The audience intended to listen to this song would be more younger probably around 13-25 because of its musical style appealing to today’s youth who are more into loud, rock/funk music than older people.
Overall, the entire song is really a comparison between the band demonstrating their new style of music and the people referred to (Dr. Martin Luther King etc), demonstrating their views on the world. The song is about those people who have changed the world for the better, against discrimination and racism and Rage Against the Machine hope that their new style of music can help to make the world a better place as well.

Guys, watch the music video. Now do you get it? This song is about renegades "of their time and age"

Just another great cover of a great song.

"Destroy our nations"

Actually. It was the first song that made me familiar with RATM.

It was quality when they did this live at t in the park, so glad i got to see them,

is it just me or does there sound like there's an angry cat in the background??