Zacarias Manuel de la Rocha (born January 12, 1970, in Long Beach, California) is an American rapper, musician, poet, and activist of Mexican-American descent. He is best known as the vocalist and lyricist of Rage Against the Machine and is currently the frontman of the music duo One Day as a Lion.
De la Rocha was born in Long Beach, California, to a Mexican-American father, artist Roberto "Beto" de la Rocha, and a German-Irish mother, Olivia de la Rocha.His father played an integral part in his cultural upbringing. Beto was a muralist and a member of Los Four, the first Chicano art collective to be exhibited at a museum (LACMA, 1973). De la Rocha's grandfather was a Sonorensan revolutionary born in Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, who fought in the Mexican Revolution and worked as an agricultural labourer in the US. Later, de la Rocha would see the hardships his grandfather endured reflected in the struggles of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
When de la Rocha was a year old, his parents separated. He and his mother moved from East Los Angeles to Irvine, where Olivia attended the University of California at Irvine and earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology. He later 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." It was also at an Irvine grade school, where he met his friend and future Rage Against the Machine bandmate Tim Commerford. As a teenager, de la Rocha became a vegetarian, saying in 1989: "I think vegetarianism is really great, and I stand really strongly behind it." When asked why, he explained: "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 it's 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."
In his early youth, de la Rocha's father Roberto de la Rocha (known as Beto)?a member of Los Four, the first Chicano art collective to be exhibited at a museum (LACMA, 1973)?suffered a nervous breakdown and took his religious ideals to extremes. Beto 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 moved in with his mother.
Zack became a vegetarian when he was 14, 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."
While attending junior high school, De La Rocha became involved in the punk scene and played guitar for a band called Juvenile Expression with future RATM bandmate, Tim Commerford. His interest in bands like the 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, which included future Inside Out bandmate, Mark Hayworth, in its lineup. De La Rocha also briefly played guitar for the post-hardcore band Farside.
De La Rocha and 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."
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 (RATM) was formed.
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..
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.
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.
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:
"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."
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".
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.
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.
