Zack de la Rocha

De la Rocha's great grandfather, Jose Isaac de la Rocha Acosta (1882–1920), was a Mexican revolutionary who fought in the Mexican Revolution.

His grandfather Isaac de la Rocha (1909–1985) was an agricultural laborer in the U.S. De La Rocha would later see the hardships his grandfather endured reflected in the struggles of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.

De la Rocha's parents divorced when he was six, and he moved from East Los Angeles to Irvine with his mother, who attended the University of California, Irvine and earned a PhD in anthropology.

De la Rocha later described Irvine as "one of the most racist cities imaginable" and said that "if you were a Mexican in Irvine, you were there because you had a broom or a hammer in your hand."

De la Rocha met Tim Commerford in elementary school, and in junior high school, they both played guitar in a band called Juvenile Expression.

De la Rocha's interest in punk rock bands like The Clash, The Misfits, Sex Pistols, and Bad Religion turned into an appreciation for other bands like Minor Threat, Bad Brains, and The Teen Idles.

Zacharias Manuel de la Rocha (born January 12, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, and political activist.

He is best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Rage Against the Machine.

Through both Rage Against the Machine and his activism, de la Rocha has spoken in opposition to corporate America, the military-industrial complex, and government oppression.

De la Rocha was born in Long Beach, California, on January 12, 1970, to Robert "Beto" de la Rocha and Olivia Lorryne Carter.

His father is a Mexican-American, with African and Sephardi Jewish heritage, while his mother was born to Manuel García Urias, a Mexican-American, and Olive Pearl Fleming, who was of German and Irish heritage.

Beto was a muralist and a member of Los Four, the first Chicano art collective to be exhibited at a museum (LACMA, 1973).

In 1987, he joined the straight edge band Hard Stance.

By 1988, singer Eric Ernst had departed from Hard Stance, leading to de la Rocha taking on lead vocals.

Now lacking a guitarist, the remaining members contacted Vic DiCara, whom some knew from their previous band that never made it past rehearsals.

This act, now named Inside Out, began writing music heavily inspired by acts like Minor Threat and Bad Brains, and soon were associated with the youth crew movement.

Their sole release was the 1990 EP No Spiritual Surrender, issued through Revelation Records.

Towards the end of the band's lifetime, DiCara and de la Rocha's writing styles began to fracture.

De la Rocha wished to push the groups into a more political and hip hop-inspired direction, particularly influenced by Run-DMC, whereas DiCara wished for the band to write more music inspired by Hare Krishna.

While de la Rocha's influence was prevalent on performed yet unreleased Inside Out tracks like Darkness of Greed and Rage Against the Machine, the band broke up because of this conflict in 1991.

De la Rocha later said that the band 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."

Following the dissolution of Inside Out in 1991, de la Rocha embraced hip hop and began freestyling at local clubs, at one of which he was approached by former Lock Up guitarist Tom Morello, who was impressed by de la Rocha's lyrics, and convinced him to form a band.

Morello recruited former Greta drummer Brad Wilk–who had previously auditioned for Lock Up before that band's dissolution earlier that same year–and de la Rocha recruited his former Juvenile Expression bandmate, Tim Commerford, to play bass.

The band was named after an unreleased Inside Out record, Rage Against the Machine.

Rage Against the Machine released their debut album in 1992 to critical and commercial success.

The band had a brief reunion in 1993, performing in a number of locations including multiple in Salt Lake City.

The band was on the main stage at Lollapalooza by 1993 and was one of the most politically charged bands ever to receive extensive airplay from radio and MTV.

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.

He left Rage Against the Machine in October 2000, citing "creative differences," at which time he issued a statement saying: "it was necessary to leave Rage because our decision-making process has completely failed", 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 Chris Cornell of Soundgarden to form Audioslave.

Following the disbandment of Rage Against the Machine, 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 Questlove with production partner James Poyser.

The album never came to 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.

On working with DJ Shadow and Reznor, de la Rocha admitted in a 2008 interview that:

"When I left Rage ... first off, I was very heartbroken, and secondly, I became obsessed with completely reinventing my wheel. In an unhealthy way, to a degree. I kind of forgot that old way of allowing yourself to just be a conduit. When I was working with Trent and Shadow, I felt that I was going through the motions. Not that what was produced wasn't great, but I feel now that I've maybe reinvented the base sounds that emanate from the songs."

In 2018, Indecision Records officially released Hard Stance's entire discography.