Zacarías Manuel "Zack" de la Rocha (born January 12, 1970, in
Long Beach,
California) is an
American rapper,
musician,
poet, and
activist of
Mexican,
German, and
Irish descent. He is best known as the
vocalist and
lyricist of
Rage Against the Machine and is also currently the frontman of the music duo
One Day as a Lion.
Early life and childhood
De la Rocha's father,
Roberto "Beto" de la Rocha, played an integral part in his son's cultural upbringing. Beto was a
muralist and member of
Los Four — the first Chicano art collective to be exhibited at a museum (LACMA, 1973). De la Rocha's grandfather was a Sinaloan revolutionary who fought in the
Mexican Revolution and an agricultural laborer in the US. Later, de la Rocha would see the hardships his grandfather endured reflected in the struggles of the Zapatistas (also known as
EZLN).
[www.musicfanclubs.org/rage/articles/frontera.htm]
When de la Rocha was a year old, his parents separated. He and his German-Irish mother, Olivia de la Rocha, moved from
East Los Angeles to
Irvine, California, where she attended the
University of California at Irvine and earned a
Ph.D. in Anthropology. Zack described Irvine as "one of the most
racist cities imaginable. If you were a
Mexican in Irvine, you were there because you had a broom or a hammer in your hand."
[www.musicfanclubs.org/rage/articles/george99.htm] It was also at an Irvine grade school, where young Zack met his friend and future Rage Against the Machine bandmate,
Tim Commerford.
In 1981, Beto suffered a
nervous breakdown, took his religious ideals to extremes, and destroyed his own artwork. When Zack would visit on weekends, Beto forced him to fast, sit in a room with the curtains closed and door locked and help destroy his father's paintings. Not long after, Olivia stopped the visits.
[www.zdlr.net/zwiki/index.php?title=Zack_de_la_Rocha_Biography]
At the age of 14, de la Rocha became a
vegetarian, saying in 1989 of the diet: "I think vegetarianism is really great, and I stand really strongly behind it." When asked why, he explains "Inside me, I think that an animal goes through a lot of pain in the whole cycle of death in the slaughterhouse; just living to be killed. That whole situation is really messed up for animals, growing up in those little cooped-up pens. I just don't think its worth eating that animal. I think animals should be free. There's so much other food out there that doesn't have to involve you in that cycle of pain and death."
Musical career
Early career
While attending junior high school, de la Rocha became involved in the
punk scene and played guitar for a band called Juvenile Expression with
Tim Commerford. His interest in bands like
The Clash,
The Sex Pistols and
Bad Religion turned into an appreciation for other bands like
Minor Threat,
Bad Brains, and
The Teen Idles. Soon after entering high school, Zack joined the
straight edge band
Hardstance.
De la Rocha and Hardstance bassist Mark Hayworth eventually formed the
Hardcore band
Inside Out, which gained a large national underground following. They released a single record,
No Spiritual Surrender, on
Revelation Records in 1990 before breaking up. In de la Rocha's words,
Inside Out was "about completely detaching ourselves from society to see ourselves as...as spirits, and not bowing down to a system that sees you as just another pebble on a beach. I channeled all my anger out through that band."
[static-void.com/vault/InsideOut.htm][www.revelationrecords.com/bands/show/119]
After Inside Out broke up, he embraced
hip hop and began
freestyling at local clubs, where he met
Tom Morello and
Brad Wilk. Eventually, de La Rocha's Juvenile Expression bandmate Commerford joined them and
Rage Against the Machine was formed.
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine was on the main stage at
Lollapalooza in 1993 and was one of the most politically charged bands ever to receive extensive airplay from radio and
MTV. De la Rocha became one of the most visible champions of
left-wing political causes around the world while advocating in favor of
Leonard Peltier and
Mumia Abu-Jamal, and supporting the
Zapatista movement in
Mexico. He spoke on the floor of the
UN, testifying against the
United States and its treatment of Abu-Jamal. Rage's second and third albums peaked at number one in the United States, but did not result in the political action de la Rocha had hoped for. He became increasingly restless and undertook collaborations with artists such as
KRS-One,
Chuck D, and
Public Enemy.
Creative differences
On September 13, 2000, Rage Against the Machine performed their last show before breaking up, during which de la Rocha gave a notable speech before playing "
Killing in the Name":
In October 2000, de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine, due to "creative differences." It is rumored that Commerford's stunt at the 2000
MTV Video Music Awards, where he climbed atop of a fixture on stage because RATM had lost the award for Best Rock Video to
Limp Bizkit, may have contributed to de la Rocha's decision to leave the band. Commerford later stated he had pulled the stunt in protest that cameras at the awards show were already hovering over Limp Bizkit before anything was even announced, with which he disagreed.. However, it became clear later on that the band disagreed significantly over the release of
Renegades, an album of cover versions of songs by artists such as
Bob Dylan,
Bruce Springsteen,
MC5,
Afrika Bambataa, and
The Stooges. The album was never intended for release and only a select few tracks from the sessions were supposed to accompany what would become
Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium. However, Wilk, Morello and Commerford decided to release the entire covers collection as an album, against de la Rocha's wishes. Upon leaving the band, de la Rocha issued a statement saying: "it was necessary to leave Rage because our decision-making process has completely failed",
[www.rollingstone.com/artists/rageagainstthemachine/articles/story/5919862/the_last_days_of_rage ] in reference to the disagreement over the release of
Renegades.
The other members of the band sought out separate management and secured the immediate release of
Renegades. After searching for a replacement for de la Rocha, the other members of Rage joined up with
Chris Cornell of
Soundgarden to form
Audioslave.
Post-Rage work
After RATM's breakup, de la Rocha worked on a solo album he had been recording since before the band's dissolution, working with
DJ Shadow,
El-P,
Muggs,
Dan The Automator,
Roni Size,
DJ Premier, and
The Roots'
Questlove with production partner
James Poyser.
The album never saw fruition, and de la Rocha started a new collaboration with
Trent Reznor of
Nine Inch Nails, in which around 20 tracks were produced.
Reznor thought the work was "excellent,"
but said the songs will likely never be released as de la Rocha was not "ready to make a record" at that time.
On working with DJ Shadow and Reznor, de la Rocha admitted in a 2008 interview that:
In 2000, de la Rocha appeared on the song "Centre of the Storm", from the
Roni Size/
Reprazent album
In The Mode,
while in 2002, he appeared in a minor role in the first part of the
Blackalicious song "Release" on the album
Blazing Arrow.
A new collaboration between de la Rocha and
DJ Shadow, the song "March of Death" was released for free online in 2003 in protest against the imminent
invasion of Iraq. As part of the collaboration de la Rocha released a statement which included the following:
The 2004 soundtrack
Songs and Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11 included one of the collaborations with Reznor, "
We Want It All".
This album also contained "No One Left", the debut recording by former Rage Against The Machine guitarist
Tom Morello as
The Nightwatchman.
On October 7, 2005, de la Rocha returned to the stage with new material, performing with
Son Jarocho band Son de Madera. He later spoke as
MC and again performed with Son de Madera at the November 22 Concert at the Farm, a benefit concert for the
South Central Farmers. He sang and played the
jarana with the band, and performed his own new original material, including the song "Sea of Dead Hands".
[Spin Magazine, February 2006]
On his post-Rage political music, de la Rocha admitted that is was near impossible for him to draw the line between politics and music:
Rage Against the Machine reunion
Rumors that Rage Against the Machine could reunite at the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival were circulating in mid-January 2007, and were confirmed on January 22.
The band was confirmed to be headlining the final day of Coachella 2007.
On April 14, 2007, Morello and de la Rocha reunited onstage early to perform a brief acoustic set at
House of Blues in
Chicago at the rally for fair food with the
Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Morello described the event as "very exciting for everybody in the room, myself included."
Rage Against the Machine, as a full band, headlined the final day of the 2007
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 29. The band played in front of an
EZLN backdrop to the largest crowds of the festival. The performance was initially thought to be a one-off, this turned out not to be the case. The band played 7 more shows in the
United States in 2007, and in January 2008, they played their first shows outside the US as part of the
Big Day Out Festival in
Australia and
New Zealand. The band has since continued to tour around the world, headlining many large festivals in
Europe and the
United States, including
Lollapalooza in
Chicago.
At Rage's first reunion show, de la Rocha made a speech during "
Wake Up" in which de la Rocha called numerous American presidents
war criminals, citing a statement by
Noam Chomsky regarding the
Nuremberg Principles.
[Interview of Noam Chomsky by Tom Morello in 1996]
In a 2008 interview, de la Rocha said this of the relationship between him, Commerford, Wilk and Morello:
Solo album
In an article published in
Billboard, it was announced that work had been completed on de la Rocha's first solo album, which he had been working on at least since his departure from RATM in 2000 and, by some accounts, as early as 1995.
[Post from former band manager] Trent Reznor,
DJ Shadow and
El-P were said to have produced the album or portions of it, however at this point it seems to have been shelved indefinitely.
One Day as a Lion
One Day as a Lion is a band consisting of Zack de la Rocha and former
The Mars Volta drummer
Jon Theodore. The group combines rock drumming, electro keyboards, and hip-hop vocals. De La Rocha will be playing keyboards as well as providing vocals with Theodore on the drums for their self-titled EP. The band's name derives from an infamous black and white graffiti photograph taken by Chicano photographer George Rodriguez in 1970 with a caption reading "It's better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb". They released their debut EP,
One Day as a Lion on July 22, 2008.
Discography
Hardstance
Inside Out
Rage Against the Machine
One Day as a Lion
Solo and collaborations
- "Mumia 911" from Mumia 911 LP, a benefit album (1999) with dead prez, Afu-Ra, P.E.A.C.E. and Aceyalone of the Freestyle Fellowship, Slimkid3 of the Pharcyde, Black Thought, and the Last Emperor under the name The Unbound Allstars
- "C.I.A. (Criminals In Action)" from Lyricist Lounge, Volume One (2000) with KRS-One and the Last Emperor
- "Burned Hollywood Burned" from Bamboozled soundtrack (2000) with Chuck D and The Roots
- "Zack de la Rocha On The Case Of Sherman Austin", from "Silence Is Defeat II"
- "Om Nia Merican" from Amethyst Rock Star Saul Williams (uncredited)"
- "Centre of the Storm" from In the Mode, Roni Size/Reprazent (2000)
- "Release" from Blazing Arrow, Blackalicious (2002)
- "March of Death", with DJ Shadow; released free online in 2003
- "We Want It All" from Songs and Artists That Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
- "Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare)" from Saul Williams, Saul Williams (2004)
- "Can't Kill the Revolution" Rage Against the Machine with Tool (1993)
[tooldiscography.com/]
- "B.O.B (Bombs Over Baghdad) Zack de la Rocha Rock Remix (2001)
Footnotes and citations
reflist
