Everything about Zack De La Rocha totally explained
Zacarías Manuel de la Rocha (born
January 12,
1970 in
Long Beach,
California) is a
rapper,
musician,
poet, and
activist best known as the
vocalist and
lyricist of
Rage Against the Machine.
Early Life
In his early youth, de la Rocha's father Roberto (known as Beto)—a member of Los Four, the first Chicano art collective to be exhibited at a major museum (LACMA, 1974)—suffered a nervous breakdown and took his religious ideals to extremes. He destroyed his art, and, when Zack visited him on the weekends, he was forced to fast, sit in a room with the curtains closed and the door locked, and help destroy his father's paintings.
After a while, he was unable to cope with this lifestyle and stayed with his mother in Irvine. For elementary school, he attended the UC Irvine Farm School, a laboratory school housed in ranch hands' bungalows associated with a slaughterhouse operation that was formerly on the site - houses that are among the very few still in existence from the Irvine Ranch. Among the people he met there was his future Rage Against the Machine bandmate, bassist Tim Commerford.
Musical career
Early career
In high school, de la Rocha became involved in the
hardcore punk scene and played guitar and sang for various bands, including Juvenile Expression with Commerford. His interest in bands like the
The Clash and
Bad Religion turned into an appreciation for other bands like
Minor Threat,
Bad Brains, and
The Teen Idles, and he joined the
straight edge band Hardstance.
De la Rocha 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."
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
Before long, 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 even spoke on the floor of the
UN, testifying against the
United States and its treatment of Abu-Jamal. The music and the message were so intertwined for him that he didn't consider any of Rage's albums a success unless they provoked tangible political change.
Rage's second and third albums peaked at number one in the United States, but didn't result in the political action de la Rocha had hoped for. He became increasingly restless and undertook collaborations with artists like
KRS-One,
Chuck D, and
Public Enemy.
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:
"Creative differences"
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'd pulled the stunt in protest that cameras at the awards show were already hovering over Limp Bizkit before anything was even announced, which he disagreed with.
The other members of the band sought out separate management and secured the immediate release of the album
Renegades. On
October 18,
2000, de la Rocha released the following statement:
Chris Cornell of
Soundgarden to form
Audioslave.
Post-Rage work
After RATM's breakup, de la Rocha worked on a solo album he'd 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'
?uestlove with production partner
James Poyser. Reznor thought the work was "excellent,"
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. De la Rocha released a statement along with his song:
Songs and Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11 included one of the collaborations with Reznor, "
We Want It All".
Reunion of RATM
On
April 14,
2007 Morello and de la Rocha played together at
House of Blues in
Chicago at the rally for fair food with the
Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). At this performance Morello played acoustic guitar while de la Rocha was on the mic. They played a new song that de la Rocha claimed he just wrote about the victory for the farmworkers over
McDonalds and
Taco Bell and their quest in acquiring fair wages from
Burger King.
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 performance was initially thought to be a one-off, but that was cast into doubt following Chris Cornell's exit from Audioslave. Four more performances are planned as part of the
Rock The Bells Festival with the
Wu-Tang Clan. Rage Against the Machine also played the 2008
Big Day Out music festival in
Australia and
New Zealand along with the
Voodoo Music Experience in
New Orleans on
October 26,
2007. and at Vegoose 2007 on October 28th. Rage Against The Machine are also confirmed to play during the 3 day music festival "Oxegen 2008" in Ireland. Rage Against The Machine are confirmed to play the other 3 day festival also at the time of "Oxegen 2008", T in the Park, on the Saturday night.
More recently, RATM have been confirmed to headline the Reading and Leeds festivals, UK in August 2008.
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:
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'd been working on at least since his departure from RATM in 2000 and, by some accounts, as early as 1995. He has been working extensively on the as-yet-untitled project with former
Mars Volta drummer
Jon Theodore. Sources familiar with the album say it features de la Rocha playing keyboards and that the sound is a hybrid of
Led Zeppelin and
Dr. Dre. It was also said that a portion of the recording took place recently at
Jack Johnson's new eco-friendly studio in Los Angeles. De la Rocha is currently understood to be unsigned and mulling offers for how to best distribute the album.
Discography
Hardstance
- Face Reality (1988 - 7" vinyl and re-issued in 1999 on Conversion Records)
No Spiritual Surrender (1990)
Benefit 7" (1991 - Bootleg live recording with Youth Of Today)
Rage Against the Machine (1992)
Evil Empire (1996)
Live & Rare (1998)
The Battle of Los Angeles (1999)
Renegades (2000)
Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium (2003)
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, 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
"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" released free over the web (2003) with DJ Shadow
"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" with Tool
Footnotes and citations
Further Information
Get more info on 'Zack De La Rocha'.
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