Zack de la Rocha
Zack de la Rocha (born January 12, 1970 in Long Beach , California as Zacarías Manuel de la Rocha ) is an American musician who became famous as a singer for the music group Rage Against the Machine .
Life
De la Rocha grew up in Long Beach, California and was raised alone after his parents divorced from his mother. Nevertheless, he was shaped by the Jewish origins of his father, the painter Roberto de la Rocha .
In his teenage years he listened to bands like Bad Religion , the Bad Brains or Sex Pistols and participated in the punk and hardcore scene . He played guitar in the hardcore bands Hardstance and Farside . He later co-founded the band Inside Out . They produced the EP No Spiritual Surrender in 1990 and toured California. De la Rocha made connections with hip-hop artists such as Public Enemy , KRS-One and Run-DMC. After Inside Out broke up, he tried to build his own hip-hop career and began rapping freestyle in clubs. With Tom Morello , Brad Wilk and Tim Commerford he founded the band Rage Against the Machine , with which he became known.
De la Rocha's texts deal with social, political and personal problems. Politically, he is left-wing, which can also be heard from his criticism of the US government. He was involved as a singer with Rage Against The Machine, at events, demonstrations and in speeches. Among other things, he campaigned for the Zapatistas in Mexico , for Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was sentenced to death for murdering a police officer, and for farmers in California who were badly treated by the state.
In 2000, Zack left Rage Against The Machine due to differences within the band. The other band members formed the new band Audioslave with Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell .
De La Rocha then worked on his hip-hop solo album. He published an Iraq war -kritisches song that was provided free on his former website and the song We Want It All , which he as a soundtrack for Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11 with Nine-Inch-Nails boss Trent Reznor has recorded .
In 2007 he reunited with Rage Against the Machine, and the band toured with Wu-Tang Clan . In 2008 they played some concerts in Europe.
In 2008 he announced that he would work as One Day as a Lion with Jon Philip Theodore , the former drummer of The Mars Volta . The band was named after a photo from 1970 showing a wall in Boyle Heights , a Latino district of Los Angeles , with the words "It's better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb". An EP was released on July 22, 2008 on the independent label ANTI Records . It consists of a total of five titles with the names: "Wild International", "Ocean View", "Last Letter", "If You Fear Dying" and "One Day as a Lion". The single Wild International appeared shortly afterwards. In 2011 the band was finally disbanded.
Due to the number 1 placement at Christmas 2009 in England, RATM played a number of headlining shows in Finsbury Park in Europe in 2010. They also played a free "Victory" show in England. To finance this, there were further concerts around the date, e.g. B. as headliners at “Rock am Ring” and “Rock im Park”, Arnheim (NL) and the “Reading Festival”.
In 2012, Zack de la Rocha was on stage at the Coachella Festival with DJ Shadow's set to sing the song "March of Death".
In 2014, Zack recorded the song Close Your Eyes (and Count to Fuck) with the rapper duo Run the Jewels . The song was released as a single and on their album Run the Jewels 2 . Since then, Zack de la Rocha has performed the song three times live with the duo. He was also seen in the accompanying music video.
In 2016, Zack recorded another song called Run the Jewels called A Report To The Shareholders / Kill Your Masters , which appeared on her album Run the Jewels 3 .
Discography
With Rage Against the Machine (albums)
- 1992: Rage Against the Machine
- 1996: Evil Empire
- 1999: The Battle of Los Angeles
- 2000: Renegades
- 2003: Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium
Others
- 1988: Face Reality , Workshed Records / 1991 Conversion Record (EP by Hard Stance )
- 1990: No Spiritual Surrender , Revelation Records (EP from Inside Out )
- 2008: One Day as a Lion , ANTI-Records (Distribution: Epitaph Records ) (EP from One Day as a Lion )
- 2016: Digging for Windows (Single)
Web links
- Zack de la Rocha in the Internet Movie Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | De la Rocha, Zack |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | De la Rocha, Zacarías Manuel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 12, 1970 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Long Beach |