RIP Adam Yauch/MCA of the Beastie Boys

R.I.P.

I just saw this on Twitter. Holy fucking shit. Dude was only five years older than I am. :(

fucking cancer

good work Adam RIP

Very, very sad about this.

This is horrible, fuck this

RIP -- hitting home, really. Makes me feel old, makes me miss being in HS. Ugh.

terrible news. RIP :/

way too young

so weird

yeah it's rare that celebrity death reminds me of my own mortality but holy fuck, MCA?

^^ this. fuck.

Horrible, horrible, horrible

well, this blows. RIP

directed by MCA:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0Y87LNw26U

damn this sucks. he always seemed like the best rapper/coolest dude in the group.

:(

i have not heard uh, anything since hello nasty i think but the beasties were staple listening pretty much everywhere in high school and are thus hardwired somewhere in the fog of adolescent nostalgia. RIP :(

fucking gutted by this for real, just...love this guy

rip dude, you were the coolest

wife is in tears, feeling v bummed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB0NM6reiRE

WTF horrible horrible. It was supposed to be such a minor 'whew good thing we caught this in time' tumor at the time. How can we fucking kill cancer?

it was like three years from this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7CH3M7cECI

RIP

rip

oh man, looking at recent pictures is just the saddest fucking thing
love to this guy and his fam

Ooh, fuckin' hell, did not expect that. Licence to Ill is going on right away.

i had no idea he was even sick. really surprised and saddened. rip

I am so bummed!!!

urgh. really thought he had beat cancer? RIP.

really want to cry a lot about this tbh

I actually just called a friend who is probably the biggest B Boys fan I know and left her a message saying I'm thinking of her which sounds so weird and lame but I know she's going to be devastated.

So so sad.

I missed the story from last month that he wouldn't be able to attend the RRHOF induction, which I guess would've at least been a strong indicator that something like this was around the corner. As it is, though, I feel like I've been slapped with a flounder.

gotta road trip this afternoon -- think it's gonna be 3 hours of Beasties now

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

i haven't listened to the b boys on the regular in many years but man they really have meant a lot of me. mca owned, then and forever imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DOMxm0o12c

Gah, too soon. RIP

Genuinely horrible, and like everyone I know on facebook/twitter is just overflowing with earnest grief. This is the most unexpected and tragic music death news in a long time. Gutted.

Cookie Puss <3

RIP.

So sad, I just read the 33 1/3 Paul's Boutique album a couple weeks ago and was reflecting on how wonderful and unique these guys are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfyMv5mG_Z8

aw shit, no way. love you man, we shared a name.

rest in peace beastie dude!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03PdIMEnwXY

don't know how to express how i feel here, I can't think of ANY musician's death that hit me this way

those videos of them playing basketball as old men seem extra sad to me now :(

Wow, this just seems shocking to me. I didn't even know he was ill. RIP.

xhuxk on Facebook just now, with a link to this: "RIP MCA. i still owe you one."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=laQLHlIBUmg

(Yep, that's him.)

Me: MCA from the Beastie Boys just died!
Coworker #1: Which one was he?
Coworker #2: The white one.
RIP, MCA.

RIP

(part of) a p big formative influence on stuff I listen(ed) to... prolly more than anyone who's died for a looooooooong time tbh

*drawers

Logo of NYC Parks. Did you know that NYC park employees all have "Park Names," Shakey?

I guess they probably do on that TV show as well.

i thought park names were just a thing under commissioner Stern

Probably right

Peace, Yauch.

Hello from Russia! R.I.P. MCA
It was a huge loss for the whole history of hip-hop music, fans, friends and family ...
5 years have passed, but we will remember you forever!

revive of the year

five years!

this still bums me out.

yeah, same :(

yeah

i remember the day and heard so many people blasting beastie boys out of their cars/houses throughout

;_;

Yup

7 years.

fuck

Today we remember Adam Yauch of the legendary Beastie Boys who passed away 10 years ago today. His childhood park in Brooklyn Heights is named in his honor. Visit it at State Street and Columbia Place. pic.twitter.com/yiHrn3zQNR

— NYC Parks (@NYCParks) May 4, 2022

The No Dogs in Space podcast deep dive into the Beasties is very good, particularly good at illustrating how they happened to be in just the right spot to leverage the tenuous connections between the 80s punk and hiphop scenes. They don't emphasize it, but it really struck me as ironic that their dj gear was funded by a settlement with British Airways after a advert used a Yauch bassline without authorization, then six years later, Paul's Boutique.

Yeah, it's pretty bonkers that they happened to see that ad and were able to get some money out of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R374eE_b2NY

Wow, that's pretty insane and incredibly fortuitous.

also kind of bonkers that British Airlines had a copy of a Beastie Boys demo track

IIRC they had released it on a 12-inch at that point. Going from memory, I think "Beastie Revolution" was the B-side of "Cookie Puss".

still pretty obscure!

Yes, totally! That story blew my mind when I read it in the Beastie Boys' book

Here's the guy who did it, telling his side of the story (Beastie Boys talk starts at 1:07)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucrj3BP6vfY

^great find!

I might be conflating this with another story from the book, but I believe Adrock says that he took some of that money to a shop intending to buy a guitar, changed his mind on the spot, and walked out with a Roland TR-808 drum machine instead. And that ended up being the drum machine he used to program the beat for "I Need a Beat" by LL Cool J, the first release on Def Jam.

Nice! Thanks peace, man, that was an amazing find. I don't want to bestow too much credit, but given the chain of events that was set off by that settlement money, that ad man really did the world a solid.

“that ad man”!

Agh, I just saw the 1:07 part and assumed he was an ad guy based on him talking about creating a commercial.

not too hard to believe that Beastie Revolution was this guy’s favourite record for a couple of months tbh

That's the Haysi Fantayzee guy? I'm shattered to see that he didn't wear that hat-thing for the rest of his life.

xp: ok, I had read the words Haysi Fantayzee before but never looked them up. I don't know what to think after watching that. I think I might have a fever.

I ended up listening to a bunch of other clips from that interview. I had never heard of Haysi Fantayzee before. He tells some good stories. Super likable guy.