Beastie Boys’ Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch Dead at 47

2012-05-04

Story by Anne Erickson

Beastie Boys founding member Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch has passed away

Adam “MCA” Yauch of the Beastie Boys has passed away, TMZ reports. He was 47 years old. Yauch is a founding member of the Beastie Boys, a group that helped bring rap-rock to the forefront of popular music in the ‘90s, selling millions of albums worldwide. Yauch also directed many of the band’s famously hilarious videos. It’s still not clear whether his death was a result of Yauch’s long battle with cancer.

Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland last month, but Yauch was unable to join Mike ‘Mike D’ Diamond and Adam ‘Adrock’ Horovitz at the ceremony, due to health issues. “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,” read the group’s official statement. The Rock Hall was honoring the Beasties Boys for their years of chart-topping hip-hop, which sold 22 million albums in the United States and 40 million albums worldwide by 2012.

Yauch announced he had cancer in a salivary gland in his neck in July of 2009, and because of those health issues, the group’s touring plans and scheduled Sept. 2009 release of “Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2,” were delayed. The disc was released as “Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2” in April of 2011. Last year, Yauch stated that he was optimistic about his chances to beat the cancer, but was not yet cancer-free. Our prayers and thoughts go out to the Yauch family, as well as his friends and band mates.

 




Anne Erickson
Posted by Anne Erickson | Music, Rock, Rock News

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