Wake Up

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Lore & Background

The lyrics discuss racism within the American government and the counter-intelligence programs of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). A spoken portion of the song is taken from an actual FBI memo in which its director J. Edgar Hoover suggests targets for the suppression of the black nationalist movement. The song also makes references to prominent African-American figures targeted by the government such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., and goes as far as saying that the government arranged their assassinations. The closing lines refer to a speech made by Martin Luther King Jr., which paraphrases part of a well-known Bible verse, 'whatever a man sows, this he will also reap' (Galatians 6:7). The speech was delivered at the end of the Selma to Montgomery March on the steps of the State Capitol Building in Montgomery, Alabama. The final lines in that speech read 'How Long? Not long, because "you shall reap what you sow."'

In Their Own Story

At the 2007 Coachella Festival, frontman Zack de la Rocha used the spoken segment of the song to allege that the United States would start wars in other countries to suit its own purposes, citing a statement by Noam Chomsky regarding the Nuremberg Trials. He said: 'A good friend of ours said that if the same laws were applied to U.S. presidents as were applied to the Nazis after World War II […] every single one of them, every last rich white one of them from Truman on, would have been hung to death and shot—and this current administration is no exception. They should be hung, and tried, and shot. As any war criminal should be.' The event led to a media furor. A clip of his speech found its way to the Fox News Channel program *Hannity & Colmes*. An on-screen headline read, 'Rock group "Rage Against the Machine" says Bush admin should be shot.' Ann Coulter quipped, 'They're losers, their fans are losers, and there's a lot of violence coming from the left wing.' In response, during the band's performance at the Rock the Bells festival in New York City on July 28, de la Rocha doubled down, claiming the show had deliberately misrepresented his words: 'A couple of months ago, those fascist motherfuckers at the Fox News Network attempted to pin this band into a corner by suggesting that we said that the president should be assassinated. Nah, what we said was that he should be brought to trial as a war criminal and hung and shot. THAT'S what we said.'

Reader's Guide

The song is one of many by Rage Against the Machine that is played in drop D tuning on the guitar and bass. It was used in the end credits of the 1999 blockbuster hit *The Matrix* and was also featured on its soundtrack. It is one of many songs in the soundtrack which fades-out rather than stops. An orchestral cover of the song by musician Sebastian Bohm was featured in the trailer for the fourth installment of the franchise, *The Matrix Resurrections*. Another cover, performed by Brass Against, is featured over the film's end credits, mirroring its use in the original film. The intro to the song played at the end of X2's soundtrack at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California. The ride got rid of the soundtrack in its entirety in 2025. On other occasions, de la Rocha has used this segment of the song to denounce the United States' handling of Hurricane Katrina, condemn globalism, urge solidarity among the lower classes against the wealthy elite, and express support for protesters in response to the Great Recession.

Did You Know?

• The spoken portion of the song is taken from an actual FBI memo written by director J. Edgar Hoover.
• The song was never released as a single, but remains a staple of live shows, usually played as the last song before the encore.
• At the 2007 Coachella Festival, Zack de la Rocha's speech during the song led to a Fox News headline that read 'Rock group "Rage Against the Machine" says Bush admin should be shot.'
• An orchestral cover of the song by Sebastian Bohm was used in the trailer for *The Matrix Resurrections*.
• The closing lines of the song reference a Martin Luther King Jr. speech that paraphrases Galatians 6:7.