Since all the facts are up, time for a couple vignettes:
At the Lollapalooza where RATM was the first act (1995 I believe), Zack de la Rocha looked out at the crowd and screamed, "YOU'RE JUST A BUNCH OF FUCKING FRATBOYS!" The crowd shouted back, "YEEAAH!" He just shook his head...
When I heard the first track from Evil Empire on the radio, I thought, "Hey, someone decided to do a really bad ripoff of Rage Against the Machine. I wonder who they are." Since then I haven't paid any attention to them--although the cover art for the album may be the best ever.