Downset: A Personal Take on Punk-Rap

Social and political awareness has long fueled some of the best and most intense rock, especially in the genres of rap and punk. L.A.’s Downset draws from both areas, making it a sort of urban hard-core band, and delivers a strong mix of music and message on its recent major-label debut, “Downset.”

While the material lead rap ‘n’ railer Rey Oropeza chooses to base his lyrics around--from racism to sexism to general social disorder--may not be entirely new, his personal and passionate take on it is.

“Events in my life and my anger toward the system motivates me to do what I do,” says Oropeza, 22, who grew up in a tough part of San Fernando and took his musical cues from early hard-core bands such as Black Flag and rappers Grandmaster Flash.

Originally, punk was a reflection of white, middle-class kids’ need to rebel against the Establishment--which is exactly what bands like the Dead Kennedys and Bad Religion did. Rap aired black, urban frustration, pioneered by such artists as Public Enemy and Ice Cube.

Now, bands such as Downset and Rage Against the Machine--whose major-label debut in 1992 became a national best-seller--represent a merger of the styles. But where Rage’s Zach de la Rocha tends to focus outwardly--on such national issues as the fate of jailed Native American Leonard Peltier--Oropeza’s lyrics are shaded more by his own experiences.

“The way I grew up influences my lyrics 100%,” says Oropeza. “I was a pissed-off kid who didn’t want to end up like everyone else in the neighborhood and in the family. Literally your whole world starts to crumble around you, so you try to grab on to anything you can before you die along with it. So I just hung on to what I could which is my expression--graffiti art and music.”

On the new Mercury release, an enraged Oropeza roars about some of the Latino-black gang violence he witnessed while growing up.

I was taught to hate you / And you were taught to hate me. / America better check itself / Before it wrecks itself , he roars in “American Dream.”

Oropeza, who was in his first band when he was 13, was weaned on hard-core and rap, but didn’t feel totally satisfied by either sound.

“A lot of punk music coming out in the early ‘80s was just a bunch of suburban kids hating the cops and spraying anarchy signs,” he says. “That got kinda boring after a while.

“In rap, there’s a continual amount of expression about the ills of the neighborhood--the barrio--but they just keep saying them over and over again.

“I realize the need to vent, but if you’re gonna bring an ill to the table, sooner or later you gotta start talking about solutions.”

The danger in making socially or politically charged records is coming off too preachy and turning off listeners. So far, Downset--which will play at the Palace on Wednesday at the opening of the annual Foundations Forum rock convention with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and other bands--avoids that problem by creating music as powerful as the lyrics. But you get the feeling that Oropeza isn’t worried about appeasing anyone.

“I just have to do what I do, and if people get it, that’s even better.”