Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, aka MCA, dies

Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, aka MCA, has died after a three-year battle with cancer, the Beastie Boys' publicist confirmed Friday. He was 47.

As a founding member of the Beastie Boys, Yauch played an important role in hip-hop history. The bawdy trio was one of the first commercially successful rap groups, and the Beastie Boys helped pave the way for other caucasians in hip-hop. Without them, it's difficult to imagine the success of Kid Rock or Eminem.
Yauch, who with his grizzled, raspy voice always sounded older than his years, was diagnosed with a cancerous parotid gland and lymph node in 2009. That put him on the sidelines for official Beastie Boys business, and he did not attend the ceremony when the Beasties were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month.

Along with Ad-Rock (Adam Horowitz) and Mike D (Michael Diamond), Yauch founded the Beastie Boys in New York City in 1979. The group began as a thrash-punk outfit — Yauch taught himself to play bass at an early age — but later hit the big time with 1986's "Licensed to Ill," which was released on Russell Simmons' Def Jam Records and helmed by a young Rick Rubin. "Licensed to Ill" married hard rock guitars with party-friendly rhymes, and songs like "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)," "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" and "Paul Revere" became staples of hip-hop's early years. The album was the first rap album to hit No. 1 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart.

The group's experimental and sample-heavy follow-up, "Paul's Boutique," outlived its initial commercial disappointment and went on to become a highly respected and influential project, carving out a new artistic path for the Beasties to follow. The group rode a wave of success in the 1990s with its hit albums "Check Your Head" (1992), "Ill Communication" (1994) and "Hello Nasty" (1998), incorporating elements of rock, punk and groovy organ funk into their music. They eventually sold more than 40 million albums.

The Beasties' stylistic evolution was also marked by a renewed maturity over the years. Rather than the beer-spraying and female-ogling frat boys of the "Licensed to Ill" days, the group became advocates for Tibetan rights; and Yauch was a founding member of the Milarepa Foundation, which produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits.

The Beastie Boys were a highly democratic group, with the members sharing equal billing and rarely outshining the others. But Yauch managed to nab some of the group's best punchlines, such as this one from 1994's "Sure Shot": "I've got more rhymes than I've got gray hairs, and that's a lot because I've got my share."

The Beastie Boys played many Detroit concerts over the years. They were an opening act for Madonna at Cobo Hall in 1985, played the Fox Theatre in 1987 with Fishbone, and hit the then-Pine Knob later that year with Run-DMC. They played three area shows in 1992, including a New Year's Eve concert at the State Fair Coliseum, and played multiple dates at Pine Knob as part of the Lollapalooza lineup in 1994. They returned to Cobo Arena in 1995 with George Clinton as opener, headlined The Palace of Auburn Hills in 1998 and played again at Cobo in 2004.

In 2007, the group did back-to-back concerts at the Fillmore Detroit, doing one night of hits and one night of instrumentals and B-sides. For the second night, they asked fans to dress up for the occasion.

"Don't dress like a bum," Yauch said at the time, in an interview with The Detroit News to preview the concerts. "We're trying to have an event, and it just kind of ruins it when someone shows up in flip-flops, cargo shorts, a tank top and a visor. If you're bringing your dog to the beach, that's fine, but we're trying to throw an event."

The two concerts would keep the Beasties in Detroit overnight, and at the time Yauch told The News his plans while in town. "Go up to top of the Pontch" — shorthand for downtown's Pontchartrain hotel — "I'm going to get a club sandwich and an iced tea. I'm going to do one full rotation at the top of the Pontch while I eat my sandwich, and then I'm going to head down."

Last year, the Beastie Boys released "Hot Sauce Committee Part Two," the group's eighth studio album. The set was originally due in 2009, but its release was delayed by Yauch's cancer diagnosis and treatment. It debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's Top 200.

Yauch also was a music video director, helming several Beastie Boys videos under the pseudonym Nathaniel Hornblower. He directed the 2006 Beastie Boys concert film "Awesome; I ... Shot That!" and 2008's "Gunnin' for that #1 Spot," a documentary about high school basketball players in New York City. Yauch also founded Oscilloscope Laboratories, distributor of independent films such as "Exit Through the Gift Shop" and more.

Yauch is survived by his wife, Dechen, and his daughter, Tenzin Losel, as well as his parents, Frances and Noel Yauch.