BEASTIE BOYS - Rap Pioneer Adam "MCA" Yauch Passes
May 4, 2012, 12 years ago
According to CNN, Adam "MCA" Yauch, a founding member of the pioneering rap band the BEASTIE BOYS, has died, the band's publicist said Friday. He was 47.
Yauch revealed in July 2009 that he had surgery for a cancer in a salivary gland and a lymph node.
Yauch's death comes less than a month after the Beastie Boys were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Because of his fight with cancer, Yauch did not attend, Rolling Stone reported.
Yauch's bandmate Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz read a letter from Yauch to the audience. "I'd like to dedicate this to my brothers Adam and Mike. They walked the globe with me. It's also for anyone who has ever been touched by our band. This induction is as much ours as it is yours."
According to VH1, the Beastie Boys began their career in the late 1970s as punk group playing hardcore thrash music in underground clubs in New York City, but when they teamed up with NYU student Rick Rubin circa 1984, they began experimenting with the fledgling sounds of hip-hop. The band became breakout superstars with the release of Licensed To Ill, which was the first hip hop album to top the Billboard album chart, selling over nine million copies. Kerry King of SLAYER made an appearance on the album playing lead guitar on 'No Sleep Till Brooklyn' and appeared in the music video which is a parody of glam metal.
