The lyrical vanguard behind Rage Against The Machine has just dropped his first ever solo track.
Zack De La Rocha is back with a throbbing piece of skronk-rap dubbed Digging For Windows, powered by spindly guitars from Chavez frontman Matt Sweeney, a mean, sludgy AF electro-bassline and the Guerrilla Radio wordsmith’s trademark politically-charged venom.
“See, if I pay Edison, no medicine,” he spits over the battering-ram beat. “I stare at a future so toxic/ No trust in the dust of a promise/ Won’t mark the name on a ballot/ So they can be free to devour our options.”
Digging For Windows marks the first new material we’ve heard from De La Rocha since his 2008 EP with One Day As A Lion (his collab with Queens of the Stone Age drummer Jon Theodore) and, as Rolling Stone reports, it also marks the first single off his forthcoming solo album, which has been rumoured to be in the works for years (Questlove, DJ Shadow, and Trent Reznor have all talked about sessions with the Rage frontman).
At least partially produced by cutting-edge rap producer El-P (Run The Jewels), the disc is due to drop sometime in 2017.
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It comes as De La Rocha’s RATM bandmates have been launching an assault of their own as Prophets Of Rage, the new supergroup they formed with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and B-Real.
But De La Rocha himself has stayed notably MIA from the project, and now we know why.
Listen to – and read the lyrics for – his fiery debut solo single, Digging For Windows below, or else download it for free via BitTorrent.
Listen: Zack De La Rocha – ‘Digging For Windows’
‘Digging For Windows’ – Lyrics
fuck that bright shit
the spot or the flashlights
we in la ducking both
in the shadows with lead pipes
the days are all night
see if i pay edison
no medicine
these blues ain’t more better when
my fever rise in the jungle
as quick as the price spikes
the days are all night
my future snapped like a rubber band
off my fold on a hand to hand
he drew from his waist
i put two in his roof
and i can still hear his screams
all night
now they ride their portfolios
like rodeos
rise every time my cherry glows
on the end of my cig as
the smoke blows through the bars
and the co’s laugh fades
as he strolls away
says i gotta pay
off that roll away
or its fuck your visitation days
and i pop off so in solitaire
i dream of offing these fred astaires
and the skin off my fingers tear
we digging for windows here
where the days are all night
this city’s a trap my partner
under the lights of they choppers
bodies tools for they coffers
not worth the cost of our coffins
i stare at a future so toxic
no trust in the dust of a promise
won’t mark the name on a ballot
so they can be free to devour our options
and just like you I’m a target
ill defined by the guap in my pocket
but the stage make figures
as quick as it off em
what marley and pac get?
i put these caps in capitals
leave minds blazed in they capitols
i step with a fury so actual fact
that my offense could be capital
we digging for windows here
