Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock and Mike D have both issued statements regarding the tragic death of their longtime bandmate, Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch.

On the band’s website, Ad-Rock wrote, “As you can imagine, shit is just fkd up right now. But i wanna say thank you to all our friends and family (which are kinda one in the same) for all the love and support. i’m glad to know that all the love that Yauch has put out into the world is coming right back at him. thank you.”

Mike D posted his reaction on Facebook. “I know, we should have tweeted and instagrammed every sad, happy and inspired thought, smile or tear by now. But honestly the last few days have just been a blur of deep emotions for our closest friend, band mate and really brother. I miss Adam so much. He really served as a great example for myself and so many of what determination, faith, focus, and humility coupled with a sense of humor can accomplish. The world is in need of many more like him. We love you Adam.”

A number of other musicians have released statements in regards to MCA, including Thom Yorke, Jay-Z, Michael Stipe, and Madonna. Also, Coldplay and The Roots both performed musical tributes to MCA over the weekend.

Before my very first Homecoming Dance in 1999, two seniors at my school were killed in a car accident. I didn’t know these kids at all, which made the grieving process a strange one. I remember how the din of the school’s hallways was hushed the next day, I remember seeing friends huddled in in clumps outside the school crying or praying or both, and I remember being driven out to the country, out to the spot of the accident where a makeshift memorial had taken shape. Around the fateful tree lay bouquets of flowers, stuffed animals, some hand-written notes, and well over 50 messages drawn on the road in colored chalk that stretched on for hundreds of feet.

I held the piece of chalk in my hand and walked along the pavement reading all these messages from people who knew the two kids: Messages that thanked, that loved, that wished for the best, that recalled a moment they shared, that said what life would be like without you. I didn’t know what life was like with them. All these messages from people who knew these two kids, and I felt like I had nothing to say, nothing to be thankful for. I finally wrote, “I wish I could have known you. From everything I’ve read, you sound like a wonderful person.”

This was how I felt Friday when Adam Yauch, 47, died. There are many others who knew MCA more than I did, both literally and through his music. I picked up Hello Nasty in 1998 and it sat largely unplayed in my CD binder. License to Ill and Ill Communication came later in high school — I just played the singles. It wasn’t until my cousin sent me Paul’s Boutique late into college that something clicked for me. I came running back to my CDs, late pass in hand, and haven’t looked back since.

Over the weekend I read plenty about Yauch from extensive and emotional histories, to a heartfelt piece from a guy  who knew him, to even reading tweets from musicians. Like a lot of people did, I played through every Beastie Boys album like twice, k-holed through Beastie Boys music videos on live performances on YouTube, thumbed through my 33 1/3 book on Paul’s Boutique, and got real bummed out when I couldn’t find my t-shirt that came with my Hot Sauce Committee Pt 2. deluxe vinyl order. This wasn’t me grieving. This was me walking along the road holding that piece of chalk.

But there’s something that separates the two kids and MCA. In reading about and listening to Yauch nonstop for the past three days (and to a more real extent since I first picked up Hello Nasty), I found that if you know Beasties Boys’ music, then you know Adam Yauch. All the facets of his life from skeezin’ in the back of a party with some ladies to a mea culpa for his immature youth, to his auteurism in film, to his spiritual beliefs — Yauch’s art truly reflected his life. His heart and soul lives in the grooves of every record and the reels of every film.

If you feel like you don’t know him, start now. Start by listening to him count it down in “The New Style” and fill in every gap between that and his comic masterpiece Fight For Your Right Revisited. 

What follows is our note on the pavement.

-Jeremy D. Larson
Managing Editor

Rhymes

MCA’s voice scratches like a an old vinyl record . His lyrics reflected sea changes, from his brass monkey-tipping early work to his Eastern-influenced later days, Adam Yauch always served as a counterpoint to Mike D and Ad Rock. We picked some of our favorite MCA lyrics that resonate longer and louder than any others.

“A Year and a Day” (B-Boy Bouillabaisse)  - Paul’s Boutique (1989)

“For I am the Bard and I am the last one
I am the king and this is my castle
Dwell in realms of now but live in those of the past
Seen a glimpse from ahead and I don’t think it’s gonna last.
And you can bet your ass.”

Shelved inside of the 12-minute continuous mix that closes out Paul’s Boutique, this MCA solo track is essentialist poetry from Yauch. The way he stresses “I” in the first two lines of this stanza the finest hip-hop braggadocio — soulful and literary, eliciting personal betterment as opposed to flashy materialism. He shifts to an almost undecipherable double-time rhythm for the next two lines– a koan reflecting his newfound buddhist leanings– before capping it off with some Brooklyn swagger. The layers of distortion on his voice were there on purpose to cloud his new spiritual path, but looking back it’s one of the most clear and honest rhymes he ever dropped. -Jeremy D. Larson

“Sure Shot”, Ill Communication (1994)

“I keep my underwear up with a piece of elastic
I use a bullshit mic that’s made out of plastic
To send my rhymes out to all nations
Like Ma Bell, I’ve got the ill communications”

Yauch is incredibly self-aware on “Sure Shot”, spitting out the group’s trademark childish imagery through roughneck vocals that sound as if they’re holding a one-way ticket out of the industrial confines of Gary, Indiana. It takes absolute finesse to drop an album’s title into a song, but Yauch makes it seem so goddamn easy, and with a line that would be chanted again and again by youths everywhere, thanks to later track, “Get It Together”. I’d go so far as to call this a defining chunk of lyricism here. -Michael Roffman

“No Sleep Til Brooklyn”  - License To Ill (1987)

“Born and bred Brooklyn, U.S.A.
They call me Adam Yauch – but I’m M.C.A
Like a lemon to a lime a lime to a lemon
I sip the def ale with all the fly women”

Not only is “No Sleep Til Brooklyn” one of the band’s best and most well-known songs, MCA’s rhymes encapsulate his entire persona. This particular verse brims with old-school swagger and cockiness, yet the structure and wordplay is off-kilter and bizarre. Holding the whole thing together, though, is MCA’s unceasing “Brooklyn-till-I-die” attitude. Posers and fly honeys alike: You’ve been warned. -Chris Coplan

“Root Down” - Ill Communication (1994)

“Well, I ain’t comin’ out goofy like the Fruit of the Loom guy
Just struttin’ like The Meters with the Look-Ka Py Py
Downtown Brooklyn is where I was born
But when the snow is falling, then I am gone
You might think that I’m a fanatic
A phone call from Utah and I’m throwing a panic
But we bring it through the roof when we kick it on down
Jimmy Smith is my man, I want to give him a pound.”

Epitomizing hip-hop’s ever-present penchant for pop culture references, these eight bars manage to allude to underwear ads, a classic funk LP, and the jazz organist whose “Root Down (And Get It)” was sampled on the track. Exactly which Fruit of the Loom guy MCA is talking about here, we’re not sure, but pretty much all those dudes were/are goofy. -Mike Madden

“Make Some Noise”  Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2 (2011)

“I burn the competition like a flamethrower
My rhymes age like wine as I get older
I’m getting bolder, competition is waning
I got the feeling and I’m single laning.”

It’s tough listening to “Make Some Noise”, from Hot Sauce Committee Pt 2., without wondering how much Yauch’s disease was weighing on him. Despite this, his voice is strong, confident and authoritative as he demonstrates to snot-nosed hip-hoppers how to properly boast old school. -Gilles LeBlanc

MCA’s Got A Beard Like A Billy Goat

As was the case with The Beatles and the Jackson 5, so too did the Beastie Boys each fulfill some essential pop archetype. Ad-Rock was the joker, Mike D was the artsy one, and MCA was the cool older brother (he had three years on his bandmates). As an extension of that, MCA was a notorious prankster in the group’s early (pre-Paul’s Boutique) days, readily wreaking havoc by destroying room service carts or pissing in the shrimp at Beefsteak Charlie’s. He also partied the hardest, favoring the volatile fuel of alcohol over the mellow pot-smoking of his fellow Boys.

Even as the definitive source of mayhem and mischief, MCA was the group’s unofficial central figure, representing so much of what made the trio unique and groundbreaking. When they left the halls of CBGB for rap-dom, MCA’s leather jacket and tough guy persona kept them grounded in their rebellious, unpredictable roots. His distinct voice, made of gravel from the most rugged quarry in BK, added some balance to his compatriots’ impish wails. And while Ad-Rock and Mike D were weaving goofball tales about girls and near-improbable situations, MCA’s rhymes focused on simplified displays of oddball brag-itude, standing as the constant thug-ish element to the group’s sound.

Perhaps recognizing his macho leanings, MCA eventually spread his creative wings by taking a more hands-on approach to the band’s visual aesthetic. Under the guise of Nathaniel Hörnblowér, MCA directed several music videos beginning in the late ’80s, including “Shadrach” and “So What’cha Want”. With these efforts, he found a creative counter, a means to transcend the group’s bro-ish tendencies toward genuine artistic maturity. They were also the start of a longer journey, one that would see MCA further leave the stoop for worldlier missions and aspirations. -Chris Coplan

Got More Rhymes Than I Got Grey Hairs

Adam Yauch and his fellow Beasties grew older, with Yauch’s grey-speckled hair the most telling of this fact. In addition to the inevitable, Yauch completed an act many of his fellow artists struggle to accomplish during their respective, lengthy careers: He matured. As the Beastie Boys entered the nineties, Yauch’s artistry never became overtly self-important (e.g the outrageous Nathaniel Hornblower persona, the hilarious videos, etc.), but he entered a realm of responsibility and giving back, of settling down and admitting to errors made in his past.

1994’s Ill Communication features MCA apologizing for his misogynistic past. His verse on “Sure Shot” settles the score: “I want to say a little something that’s long overdue/The disrespect to women has got to be through/To all the mothers and sisters and the wives and friends/I want to offer my love and respect to the end.” It was a verse so strong in gesture that Saturday Night Live re-aired a live performance of it this past weekend in tribute. A few years later, Yauch wrote a letter to Time Out New York apologizing for homophobic lyrics in the band’s past. “There are no excuses,” he wrote. “But time has healed our stupidity.”

Along with the tracks, Yauch will most likely BE remembered for the Tibetan Freedom Concerts that took place during the late ’90s and early ’00s. A practicing Buddhist, Yauch helped spread word of the Tibetan plight to the youth of the country, with the concerts raising millions in the process for their cause. Adam “MCA” Yauch will be remembered for the records without question, but his political and social movements set an example for all future musicians who wish to pick up the mike or plug in the instruments. -Justin Gerber

Yauch Behind The Camera

The rotoscoping on the music video for “Shadrach”, Adam Yauch’s (a.k.a. lederhosen-wearing alter-ego Nathanial Hornblower) directorial debut, is a marvel — each frame was hand-painted and visually imitates all of the many colors heard on the Paul’s Boutique track. It translates the essence of “Shadrach” onto film so perfectly, it’s an understated masterpiece (especially if you know the painstaking time that comes with working with rotoscope, and especially back in the late 80′s). Yauch’s early music videos appeared simple, but so fit the style of the medium he was working with.  ”So Whatcha Want” is straight early-90′s sensory-overload MTV aesthetic, like if Hype Williams loved Predator. The other Check Your Head video for “Jimmy James” was like if Hype Williams loved LSD and Hendrix.

That early aesthetic would be refined with Hornblower’s later work: The campy Godzilla send-up of “Intergalactic”, the campy Italian spy movie send-up of “Body Movin’”, and the campy Hollywood send-up of “Triple Trouble”. Interpolated with the bad costumes, hammy acting, and cheap effects were the three boys spitting rhymes at the camera like provocateurs. Yauch balanced the frivolity and ferocity of the Beastie’s songs with these videos — their iconic style shadowed only perhaps by Spike Jonze’s “Sabatoge” video, which incidentally aped some of Yauch’s earlier work.

His auteurism extended beyond the role of in-house music video director to feature films. Yauch directed the full-length documentary Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot about a group of high school basketball players, and the fan-shot documentary of their 2004 homecoming show at Madison Square Garden, Awesome, I Fucking Shot That!

In 2008, he opened up a movie distribution company called Oscilloscope Laboratories, an offshoot of of his indie music studio Oscilloscope Records. Without his distribution company, films like The Garden, Exit Through The Gift Shop, Wendy and Lucy, The Messanger, and many more would never have seen wide release. Also during his time at Oscilloscope Laboratories (where he dubbed himself the “Minister of Information”) Yauch formed a DVD of the Month Club called the “Circle of Trust”, on which he jokingly commented: “There’s a real void in the marketplace since Columbia Record club is no longer active, so we’re hoping to hire a staff of tens of thousands to call our valuable membership over and over again and harass them until they cry.”

The final distribution project Yauch involved himself with at Oscilloscope was the distribution of the LCD Soundsystem movie documenting their final show at Madison Square Garden, Shut Up and Play The Hits, bringing the emotional tenor of that movie to unfathomable levels.

The final intersection of MCA’s music and film, of director and actor, of humor and illness is Yauch’s 2011 masterpiece, Fight For Your Right Revisited. The 30-minute short embodies and music career of MCA, the video career of Nathanial Hornblower, and the life of Adam Yauch. -Jeremy D. Larson

Some Voices Got Bass

Back during his tenure at Brooklyn’s Edward R. Murrow High School – and years before picking up the mic — Yauch taught himself to play bass, likely in hopes of latching on to the hardcore scene that was beginning to pop off in New York at the time. Within a year or two, he would hook up with pals Michael Diamond (Mike D), guitarist John Berry, and drummer Kate Schellenbach to form the original Beasties incarnate, which would go on to release 1982′s strictly hardcore Polly Wog Stew EP and perform alongside Bad Brains and the like at venues including CBGB and Max’s Kansas City.

No doubt was this the era wherein MCA spent his most time on the four-string, but he would also incorporate the instrument (the guitar version as well as its string and upright counterparts) into such Beasties LPs as Check Your Head (1992), Ill Communication, the entirely instrumental The Mix-Up, and last year’s Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. At some point, Yauch also learned a few things on keyboard, too, though most of that instrument’s involvement with the Beasties came by way of “Money” Mark Ramos-Nishita. -Mike Madden

Selected Live Videography

“Fight For Your Right (Live on The Joan Rivers Show)”:

“Shadrach (Live on Soul Train)”:

“Sabotage & Intergalactic  (Live at T In The Park ’98)”:

“Radio, Radio” (Live on SNL with Elvis Costello) 

“Ch-Check It Out (Live on Letterman)”:

“So What’Cha Want (Live on Fallon)”:

Coldplay paid tribute to the Beastie Boys’ MCA during their concert in Los Angeles on Friday night. The band performed their piano-driven reworking of “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)”, which they first debuted at the All Points West Music Festival in 2009 (the Beastie Boys canceled their slot at the festival shortly after MCA revealed his cancer diagnosis.) Watch footage of last night’s tribute below.

On Friday night’s episode of Late Night, Jimmy Fallon and The Roots honored the Beastie Boys’ MCA with a video montage and covers of the trio’s classic songs. Fallon offered a short statement before airing the montage, which comprised footage from the Beastie Boys’ 2009 appearance on the show. The Roots performed covers of “Sure Shot”, “Remote Control”, “Sabotage” in between segments.

You can replay all of Friday’s episode below (Fallon’s montage is at the 11:40 mark, and The Roots’ cover of “Sure Shot” can be seen at the 4:15 mark. The other covers take place before and after each break.) Fallon’s website has also re-posted the Beastie Boys’ entire 2009 appearance, which you can find in the second video.

Beastie Boys’ Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch has died at the age of 47. According to an issued press release, Yauch passed away in his native New York City on Friday morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer.

It was Yauch (aka MCA, aka Nathanial Hörnblowér) who after being inspired by a Black Flag show when he was 14 years old, got Michael Diamond (Mike D) and later Adam Horovitz (Ad Rock) to form the Beastie Boys in 1981. The band started as a hardcore punk group, opening for the likes of Bad Brains and The Misfits at the famed CBGB’s, playing loft and basement shows all around New York City and earning a reputation for one of the best party shows in the city. It wasn’t until 1984 when a 21 year old Rick Rubin asked to produce the trio’s work under his new label, Def Jam Records. Their first album, License To Ill, was released in 1986 and changed the face of hip-hop.

Yauch’s gruff voice appeared on every Beastie Boys release from License To Ill to Hot Sauce Committee Pt 2. Yauch also played bass on several albums, and directed most of the band’s videos under the pseudonym Nathanial Hörnblowér. Yauch was one of people behind the Tibetan Freedom Concert in 1996, and dedicated much of his time advocating social justice for Tibet throughout his life, showing support and helping out Students for a Free Tibet and co-founding Milarepa Fund. In 2002, Yauch built his own studio in New York City called Oscilloscope Laboratories and began producing music and and distributing films, including his 2008 directorial debut, Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot, a documentary about high school basketball players.

In July 2009, Yauch revealed he had a cancerous tumor in his left parotid gland and began undergoing radiation therapy. Shortly after, the Beastie Boys canceled their tour and delayed the release of their next studio album.

Throughout his treatment, Yauch remained optimistic, frequently issuing health updates to his fans. However, he remained out of the public spotlight during last spring’s release of Hot Sauce Committee, Pt 2, and last month, he skipped the group’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the ceremony, Mike D and Ad Rock paid tribute to him in his absence.

Beastie Boys’ Adam “MCA” Yauch will not be in attendance when the group is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later tonight, according to RollingStone.com. An issued press release states, “Beastie Boys regret that Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch will be unable to join Mike ‘Mike D’ Diamond and Adam ‘Adrock’ Horovitz at the band’s induction into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in April. Mike, Adam and Adam are truly grateful for the honor but with only two of the three Beastie Boys attending, they will unfortunately not be able to perform at the ceremony.”

Yauch has been battling cancer since July 2009 and has remained out of the public spotlight since then, even during the release of the group’s latest LP, Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2.

The long-awaited documentary chronicling influential DIY outfit Le Tigre‘s 2004 world tour is finally here. Who Took The Bomp?: Le Tigre On Tour, which documents the electropunk trio as they traveled across the globe in support of their third studio album, The Island, is set to premiere at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, TX on March 17th and 19th, with an additional screening at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art on April 4th.

Fans interested in getting their hands on a copy of the documentary will be able to do so thanks to the husband of Le Tigre’s Kathleen Hanna, aka as Beastie Boys’ Adam Horovitz, and his Oscilloscope Laboratories imprint. Slated for release on June 7th, the DVD also includes such goodies as band commentary, rare performances, outtakes, and interviews. Head on over to the Oscilloscope webstore to pre-order a copy.

hey all,

so i just got back from dharamsala, india. went over there to see some tibetan doctors, but as it worked out, the Dalai Lama was giving a 3 day teaching, so i was able to attend that as well.

i’m feeling healthy, strong and hopeful that i’ve beaten this thing, but of course time will tell.  i’m taking tibetan medicine and at the recommendation of the tibetan doctors i’ve been eating a vegan/organic diet, which surprisingly enough was harder to do in india than it is now that i’m back home. here i can just shop for the right food and cook… a lot easier than depending on restaurants.

when i was in india i visited an ani gompa (a nunnery) called jamyang choling. they did a puja (religious ceremony) for me to help me get well. one nun said to me “we do prayers and then you are better.” so i’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

i will put a link to their web site (below) but it doesn’t do justice to how amazing it is to actually go there and hang out with them. i sponsor a few nuns at jamyang choling. there are about 125 nuns there now and more keep joining. when i first met them i think there were only 13 and they were living in some abandoned cow sheds. then they bought some land with some donations, and with more donations they started building rooms for housing, classrooms, a prayer hall, 2 stoopas….. they now live on a beautiful complex in this incredibly lush, peaceful patch of land in lower dharamsala. cows walking around, birds singing, they are growing mangoes and bananas, and they have a whole garden where they grow herbs and vegetables.

i asked how many nuns still need sponsorship. they said 50. it’s about $350 a year to sponsor a nun if you are interested.

http://www.jamchoebuddhistdialectics.org/

we have not set a new release date for the record yet, but i’m hoping it’ll be in the first half of next year. looking forward to that, but in the meantime, i’m just enjoying a little downtime in massachusetts, taking walks in the woods and hanging out with the family…. still doing a little work related to oscilloscope, watching screeners and attending some screenings, but for the most part, just laying low.

if you are interested i’ll send out some little updates every now and then on the oscilloscope twitter account.

http://twitter.com/oscopelabs

thanks again for all of the well wishes and prayers, and the letters were great too, brought a smile to my face reading them.

talk to you soon,

yauch

Today, the Brooklyn hip-hopper offered an update on how things are going. In an open letter (via Brooklyn Vegan), Yauch explained that he is now a week and a half out of surgery and “rapidly recovering from it.” Still, the 44-year-old rapper notes there’s a long way to go, writing, “The next line of treatment will be radiation. That involves blasting you with some kind of beam for a few minutes a day, 5 days a week, for about 7 weeks. That will start in a few weeks.”

Throughout the note, Yauch exhibits a rather upbeat attitude and offers gratitude for all the well wishers and tributes, the latter of which has included everything from Jay-Z covering “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” and Chris Martin putting a piano to “Fight For Your Right”.

As always, we’ll keep you updated. Read the letter in its entirety below…

hey all,
hope you are doing well.

so i’m about a week and a half out of surgery now and rapidly recovering from it. i haven’t taken any of the pain meds, which supposedly speeds along the healing process, or should i say, taking them slows it down. anyway, i spent 1 night at the hospital after the surgery. the hospital was too crazy to get any rest so i headed home to relax, have home cooked food and hang out with the family.

i’m pretty well detoxed from the anesthesia that they pumped me up with to keep me under for all that time. that took several days to get out of my system. my neck and jaw are still pretty stiff from the surgery, but it gets better everyday. had the stitches out this past monday… so things are moving along.

but no sooner am i on the mend from this first torture than are they lining up the next one. the next line of treatment will be radiation. that involves blasting you with some kind of beam for a few minutes a day, 5 days a week, for about 7 weeks. that will start in a few weeks…

saw the jay-z cover of no sleep, and the coldplayone of fight for your right from APW on youtube. good shit. and i heard karen o wore a “get well MCA” armband, and that q-tip gave a shout out too….. very kind of them.

just wanted to thank them and everyone else who sent positive thoughts my way. i do think that all of the well wishes have contributed to the fact that my treatment and recovery are going well.

much love back at all of you!

adam

As a result, the Beastie Boys have canceled all upcoming concert appearances, including scheduled headlining spots at Lollapalooza, All Points West and the Austin City Limits Festival. Furthermore, the group has decided to push back the release of its forthcoming record, Hot Sauce Committee Part 1.

More as it becomes available.

We’d like to wish Yauch the speediest of recoveries. He is in our thoughts.