Songfacts®:

• "Guerrilla Radio" is about the 2000 US presidential election, and in particular the way the media shaped the campaigns of the two competitors, George W. Bush and Al Gore.
  
  Bush and Gore differed on issues like climate change and tax policy, but many voters felt they were very much alike, pursuing essentially the same agenda. For instance, both wanted to increase spending on the military. In this song, Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha makes his choice clear: None of the above.
  
  In De la Rocha's eyes, we should have been looking at the bigger picture: How America used its power to get rich at the expense of poor countries, and how is suppresses dissent through a complacent media. "Guerrilla Radio" represents the alternative media that looks to expose these issues.
  
  Oh, that election was won by George W. Bush, and it proved quite consequential, especially after 9/11 when he expanded government powers of surveillance and started wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• The line, "More for Gore or the son of a drug lord" refers to the allegation that, while George Bush Sr. was president, the CIA was supplying drugs to inner city areas.
• This song is a statement about the worthlessness of democracy in the United States. Since the people don't truly understand "choice" and are only able to grasp a small glimpse of those running to represent them in office, they are essentially under a one-party system. Rage are using music and sound as a weapon against such "low intensity warfare."
  
  The song is basically a manifestation of Rage's goal and purpose, acting as "guerrilla radio" to alert listeners to these ideas that are branded "radical" in the mainstream.
• "Guerrilla Radio" is late-stage Rage, the first single from The Battle Of Los Angeles, their last album of original songs. The band released their self-titled debut album in 1992 just a year after forming and built a huge fanbase over the next few years through touring and activism. They got sparing radio play and their videos got a few spins on MTV, but if you found about about Rage in 1993, it was probably because you saw them play Lollapalooza or heard about them from a friend.
  
  When they finally got around to putting out Evil Empire as their second album in 1996, the band had a substantial and very dedicated fan base. Led by "Bulls On Parade," it went straight to #1, as did The Battle Of Los Angeles.
  
  But the band didn't get along that well, and by 1999 a rift formed between Zack de la Rocha and his three bandmates. When he announced his departure in 2000 his bandmates planned to replace him but instead formed a new, less political band called Audioslave with Chris Cornell as lead singer. That band released three highly regarded and strong-selling albums before calling it quits in 2007 when Rage re-formed. That reunion lasted until 2011, and the band got back together again for a 2022 tour. Neither reunion led to new music, and in 2023 when they entered the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, only guitarist Tom Morello went to the ceremony. This seemed to be the nail in the RATM coffin.
• This was used on the popular 2000 skateboarding game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. It also shows up in the HBO series Entourage in the 2008 episode "Play'n With Fire."
• "Guerrilla Radio" won Best Hard Rock Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. It was the second (and last) win for RATM, who took the same award four years earlier for "Tire Me."
• Both Time and Rolling Stone magazines named The Battle of Los Angeles the best album of 1999 in their year-end lists.
• "Guerrilla," pronounced "gorilla," refers to a small fighting force that uses unconventional tactics to battle a larger, more organized army. These guerrillas are typically insurgents battling their governments, a parallel to Rage Against The Machine shouting above the din of conventional media. Guerrilla tactics don't usually win wars but can foment unrest and garner the kind of support that can lead to revolutions.
• Directed by the husband-and-wife team Honey (Nicholas Brooks and Laura Kelly), the video is a send-up of the ubiquitous Gap commercials from the time that showed happy, attractive young people dancing in front of white backgrounds. In the video, we see these kind of smiling people but also the sweatshop workers who are toiling to make their clothing. Instead of the Gap slogan "Everybody In Khaki," we get, "Everybody In Denial."
• The band Brass Against, which covers protest songs with horn arrangements and a female vocalist, released a popular version of "Guerrilla Radio." The Brass Against cover of Rage's "Wake Up" appears in the 2021 movie The Matrix Resurrections.