“Righteous proof that rebel music and irony are alive and well”: Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name amasses one billion Spotify streams

Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name has been streamed one billion times on Spotify.

Guitarist Tom Morello announced that the rap metal band’s 1992 single crossed the billion-stream threshold in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday, January 11.

“Killing In The Name just hit 1 billion streams on Spotify!” he wrote. “Thanks to all those who listened to it: those who love it, those who hate it, and those that have enjoyed it without understanding it. Righteous proof that rebel music and irony are alive and well.”

Killing In The Name was released in November 1992 as the lead single from Rage Against The Machine’s self-titled debut album. It instantly drew acclaim and controversy for the Los Angeles four-piece, whose mixture of rap and metal had only been attempted by a handful of bands before them.

The lyrics, which feature numerous profanities, attack racist police officers and the military-industrial complex. They also contain arguably Rage Against The Machine’s most famous line: “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me.”

Reflecting on Killing In The Name’s lyrics in a 2020 Rolling Stone interview, Morello said: “‘Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me’ is a universal sentiment. While it’s a simple lyric, I think it’s one of [Zack De La Rocha’s, vocalist] most brilliant.

“And to me, it relates to Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass said, the moment he became free was not the moment that he was physically loosed from his bonds. It was the moment when master said, ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘No.’ And that’s the essence of ‘Fuck you, I will not do what you tell me.’”

The song was a chart hit in 1992, reaching the top 20 in four countries, but found its greatest commercial success almost two decades later. In 2009, a social media campaign to get Killing In The Name to the UK’s coveted Christmas number one position over Joe McElderry, winner of prime-time TV talent show The X Factor, was successful.

Rage Against The Machine released two more studio albums after their debut (1996’s Evil Empire and 1999’s The Battle Of Angeles) before splitting in 2000. They’ve reunited multiple times since, most recently in 2020, but as of January 2024 are once again inactive.

According to Spotify’s official ‘Billions Club’ playlist, only 850 songs have reached the 10-digit mark. Other heavy metal tracks to have joined those hallowed ranks include Metallica’s Enter Sandman, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid and System Of A Down’s Chop Suey.