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Zack de la Rocha

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Zack de la Rocha

Zacarías Manuel de la Rocha (born January 12, 1970 in Long Beach, California) is a rapper, musician, poet and activist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of Rage Against the Machine.

Early life

In 1983, 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 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 destroy his father's paintings.

After a while, he was unable to cope with this lifestyle and stayed with his American 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 Tim Commerford.

Musical career

Early career

The kind of life Beto gave to de la Rocha brought a 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 rock and hardcore punk scene and played guitar and sang for various bands, including a punk band called Juvenile Expression with Commerford. 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, and he joined the straight edge band Hardstance.

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 felt that his Chicano heritage separated him from his immediate environment. Although he was never as economically deprived as his fellow Chicanos, he felt the same tension and rejection as they did. An incident with a particular influence on de la Rocha was a teacher's offhand remark about a "wetback station." 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 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 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 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.

The other members of the band sought out separate management and managed to secure the immediate release of the album. This may have prompted De La Rocha to quit. 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.[1]

After searching for a replacement for de la Rocha, the other members of Rage joined up with Chris Cornell of Soundgarden to form Audioslave.

Zack's Speech

On September 13, 2000, Rage Against the Machine performed their last show to date at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, during which de la Rocha gave a notable speech before playing Killing in the Name:

So who went out and joined us for the Democratic National Convention? I've never seen so many fucking cops in my whole life. It's like everybody knows that everybody went out there, the only thing we were out there to do is express how much we hate both the Democrats and Republicans because they sold this fucking country out. And by expressing our rights to resist, what do they do, they open fire on the crowd. I don't care what fucking television station said the violence was caused by the people at the concert, those motherfuckers unloaded on this crowd. And I think it's ridiculous considering, you know, none of us had rubber bullets, none of us had M16s, none of us had billy clubs, none of us had face shields. All we had was our fists, our voices, our microphones, our guitars, our drums, and anytime we get beaten in the streets for protesting, we take it to the court system, and the court system don't wanna hear it. Look what happened to Amadou Diallo in New York, they shot that brother 41 times and let all four officers go. It's time for a new type of action in this country.

Post-Rage work

After RATM's breakup, de la Rocha worked on a solo album he had been recording since before RATM's dissolution, working with DJ Shadow, Company Flow, and The Roots' ?uestlove.[1] 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.[2] Reznor thought the work was "excellent,"[2] but said the songs will likely never be released as de la Rocha was not "ready to make a record" at that time.[3]

In 2000, de la Rocha appeared on the song "Centre of the Storm", from the Roni Size/Reprazent album In The Mode,[4] while in 2002, he appeared in a minor role in the first part of the Blackalicious song "Release" on the album Blazing Arrow.[5] 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:

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.[6]

The 2004 soundtrack Songs and Artists that Inspired Fahrenheit 9/11 included one of the collaborations with Reznor, "We Want It All".[2] This album also contained the debut recording by Tom Morello as The Nightwatchman, "No One Left".

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".[7]

Reunion With RATM

Rage Against the Machine is billed to headline the final day of the 2007 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Sunday, April 29.[8] The performance was initially thought to be a one-off,[9] but that was cast into doubt following Chris Cornell's exit from Audioslave.[10] Three more performances are planned as part of Rock the Bells with the Wu-Tang Clan.[11]

The reunion performance will primarily be a vehicle to voice the band's opposition to the "right-wing purgatory" the United States has "slid into" under the George W. Bush administration since RATM's dissolution.[12]

Discography

Rage Against the Machine

Solo and collaborations

Footnotes and citations

  1. ^ a b Armstrong, Mark (October 18, 2000). "Zack de la Rocha Leaves Rage Against the Machine". MTV News. Retrieved 2007-02-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b c Moss, Corey (May 10, 2005). "Reznor Says Collabos With De La Rocha, Keenan May Never Surface". MTV News. Retrieved 2007-02-17.
  3. ^ Gargano, Paul (October 2005). "Nine Inch Nails (interview)". Maximum Ink Music Magazine. Retrieved 2007-02-17.
  4. ^ Phillips, Liam (October 17, 2001). "In The Mode review". The Manitoban. Retrieved 2007-02-17.
  5. ^ Moss, Corey (March 1, 2002). "Zack De La Rocha Joining Blackalicious On Blazing Arrow". MTV News. Retrieved 2007-02-17.
  6. ^ Zack de la Rocha.com, official website promoting "March of Death". Retrieved February 17, 2007.
  7. ^ "Backstage Pass" (February 2006), Spin. Retrieved February 17, 2007.
  8. ^ Finn, Natalie (January 22, 2007). "Rage On at Coachella". E! News. EOnline.com. Retrieved 2007-01-24.
  9. ^ Cohen, Jonathan (January 22, 2007). "Rage, Bjork, Chili Peppers Sign On For Coachella". Billboard. Billboard.com. Retrieved 2007-01-24.
  10. ^ Harris, Chris (February 15, 2007). "Chris Cornell Talks Audioslave Split, Nixes Rumors Of Soundgarden Reunion". MTV News. Retrieved 2007-02-16.
  11. ^ First reported in the LA Times: Boucher (February 24, 2007). "Rage Against the Machine adds more dates". LA Times. Retrieved 2007-02-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Text "first-Geoff" ignored (help) Later confirmed on RATM's official website: Official website. Retrieved on February 27, 2007).
  12. ^ "Rage Against The Machine discuss reunion". NME. February 2, 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-03.

References

Devenish, Colin (2001), Rage Against the Machine: St. Martin's Griffin ISBN 0-312-27316-6

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