Zack de la Rocha

de la Rocha, circa 1996.

Zacarías Manuel "Zack" de la Rocha (born January 12, 1970 in Long Beach, California) is a musician, poet and activist, best known as the former lead singer of Rage Against the Machine, a politically-inspired band who were highly regarded as one of the most influential rock bands in recent history, having helped pave the way for many of today's bands that fuse rap and hard rock.

Early life

In 1983 de la Rocha's father 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 de la Rocha visited him on the weekends he was forced to fast, sit in a room with the curtains closed and the door locked, and help his father destroy his paintings—paintings which had helped him establish a sense of Chicano identity. After a while, he was unable to cope with this lifestyle and stayed with his mother in Irvine, which at the time had one of the highest percentages of White Americans in Southern California.

Musical career

Early career

The lifestyle Beto forced upon de la Rocha brought culture shock upon him as well as an identity crisis. He was alienated from the Chicano community and was an outsider in the California suburbs where Chicanos were typically only seen doing menial work. In high school he became involved in the punk and hardcore scene and played guitar and sang for a straight-edge band called Hardstance. His interest in bands like the Sex Pistols and Bad Religion turned into an appreciation for other bands like Minor Threat, Bad Brains, and The Teen Idles.

De la Rocha eventually formed Inside Out, which gained a large following in Huntington Beach and Irvine. 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."

De la Rocha's Chicano heritage separated him from the rich white kids that surrounded him. Although he was never economically deprived as his fellow Chicanos, he felt the same tension and rejection as they did. He found himself relating to hip-hop acts such as Public Enemy, KRS One, and Run-DMC. 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 friend Tim 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 causes around the world fighting for the causes 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 their treatment of Abu-Jamal. The music and the message were so intertwined for him that he did not 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 did not 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.

"Creative differences"

In October 2000, de la Rocha left Rage Against the Machine, due to "creative differences." It is rumored that Tim Commerford's stunt at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, where he climbed on one of the fixtures on stage and threatened to jump because RATM had lost the award for Best Rock Album to Limp Bizkit, was the catalyst for de la Rocha's decision to leave the band.

On October 18, 2000, he released the following statement:

I feel that it is now necessary to leave Rage because our decision-making process has completely failed. It is no longer meeting the aspirations of all four of us collectively as a band, and from my perspective, has undermined our artistic and political ideal. I am extremely proud of our work, both as activists and musicians, as well as indebted and grateful to every person who has expressed solidarity and shared this incredible experience with us.

Post-Rage work

According to a Spin magazine interview, de la Rocha has recorded several tracks with various artists, among them Reprazent and DJ Shadow intended for a solo album. In 2001, he was recording material on separate occasions with Roots drummer ?uestlove and Company Flow frontman El-P. In 2002 de la Rocha appeared in a minor role in the first part of Blackalicious's Blazing Arrow, on the track "Release" on the Blazing Arrow album.

Although an album has yet to be released, not all of their work was unproductive. De la Rocha and DJ Shadow's song "March of Death" was released for free over the web in 2003 in protest of the war in Iraq.

Zach released a statement along with his song:

Without just cause or reason, without legal or moral justification, and without a thread of proof that Iraq directly threatens the security of the United States, the Bush administration has headed to war. As I am writing this, bombs are raining upon the defenseless civilians of Baghdad in a continuation of a policy that has already claimed the lives of over 1 million innocent Iraqi people. People just like us who want democracy but find themselves cornered by a dictator on one side, naked U.S. aggression on another, and the oil beneath their country; for which it appears they are to be massacred. Lies, sanctions, and cruise missiles have never created a free and just society. Only everyday people can do that, which is why I'm joining the millions world wide who have stood up to oppose the Bush administration's attempt to expand the U.S. empire at the expense of human rights at home and abroad. In this spirit I'm releasing this song for anyone who is willing to listen. I hope it not only makes us think, but also inspires us to act and raise our voices.

De la Rocha also worked on an audio track produced by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, but according to Reznor, this song will likely never be released, as Reznor stated that Rocha was not comfortable in releasing the material recorded as he believed it "wasn't good enough."

De la Rocha has largely remained out of the public eye ever since Rage's breakup. His most recent appearances have been on the Songs and Artists That Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11 soundtrack with the track "We Want It All" (produced by Trent Reznor) and on the song "Act III Scene 2 (Shakespeare)" on Saul Williams's self-titled album in 2004. Rumors of an impending solo album persist, though little real evidence of such a project exists.

Trivia

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.
Has known bassist Tim Commerford since elementary school.
After searching for a replacement for de la Rocha, the rest of the members of Rage Against the Machine joined up with Chris Cornell of Soundgarden fame to form Audioslave.

External links

Zack de la Rocha Network
Zack de la Rocha official site]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]