People of the Sun

The raw energy of People of the Sun ignites from the start with a backward-looking narrative, connecting contemporary struggle with ancestral echoes. The lyrics, born from a personal experience of Zack de la Rocha in Chiapas, evoke the resistance of indigenous peoples against oppression. It's not just a story, but a tapestry of historical references ranging from the fall of the Aztec Empire to the hands of the Spanish, even mentioning the last emperor Cuauhtémoc, to the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles. The accompanying image for the single, a 1927 photograph by Tina Modotti showing corn, a sickle, and a bandolier, reinforces this connection between land, labor, and struggle.

This track, released as the second single from the album Evil Empire in 1996, has an interesting gestation story. Although the version we know was recorded in 1995 at Cole Rehearsal Studios in Los Angeles, the band had already been performing it live since 1992. Early performances in venues like the Club With No Name in West Hollywood, California, featured different lyrics, including fragments of their song Fistful of Steel. The definitive version, with the lyrics we know today, debuted live in Paris, France, on May 9, 1996. The production of Evil Empire was handled by Brendan O'Brien and the band themselves, with Caram Costanzo and Clay Harper as recording engineers, and Andy Wallace on mixing. The track, with a runtime of 2:30, became a benchmark within the genre, earning a Grammy nomination in 1998 for Best Hard Rock Performance.