Obituary - Adam 'MCA' Yauch

On Friday 4 May 2012, bassist, MC and founder of the BEASTIE BOYS, Adam Yauch aka MCA, passed away at the age of 47 due to cancer. According to his mother, Frances, he passed at 9am surrounded by family. He had been fighting cancer since 2009, when the disease was discovered in his salivary gland.

Yauch was born in Brooklyn, New York on 5 August 1964. Born of a Catholic father and Jewish mother, he taught himself bass guitar while attending Edward R. Murrow High School in the Midwood area of Brooklyn. While still at school, along with John Berry, kate Schellenback and Michael Diamond, he formed the band that would take him to global notoriety - BEASTIE BOYS. The band formed as a Hardcore band initially and played its first show on Yauch’s 17th birthday. In 1982, BEASTIE BOYS released its debut record, ‘Poly Wog Stew’.

He attended Bard College for another two years before dropping out. At the age of 22, Yauch and BEASTIE BOYS had mutated into a Hip-Hop trio and released their controversial debut album, ‘Licensed To Ill’ in 1986 along with the iconic party anthem, ‘Fight For Your Right’.

The official statement from BEASTIE BOYS tells Yauch’s history as well as any could:

It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam "MCA" Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation that produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer. He was 47 years old.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Yauch taught himself to play bass in high school, forming a band for his 17th birthday party that would later become known the world over as Beastie Boys.

With fellow members Michael "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "Adrock" Horovitz, Beastie Boys would go on to sell over 40 million records, release four #1 albums – including the first Hip Hop album ever to top the Billboard 200, the band's 1986 debut full length, ‘Licensed To Ill’ – win three Grammys, and the MTV Video Vanguard Lifetime Achievement award. Last month Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Diamond and Horovitz reading an acceptance speech on behalf of Yauch, who was unable to attend.

In addition to his hand in creating such historic Beastie Boys albums as ‘Paul's Boutique’, ‘Check Your Head’, ‘Ill Communication’, ‘Hello Nasty’ and more, Yauch was a founder of the Milarepa Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness and activism regarding the injustices perpetrated on native Tibetans by Chinese occupational government and military forces. In 1996, Milarepa produced the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, which was attended by 100,000 people, making it the biggest benefit concert on U.S. soil since 1985?s Live Aid. The Tibetan Freedom Concert series would continue to stage some of the most significant benefit shows in the world for nearly a decade following in New York City, Washington DC, Tokyo, Sydney, Amsterdam, Taipei and other cities.

In the wake of September 11, 2001, Milarepa organized New Yorkers Against Violence, a benefit headlined by Beastie Boys at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, with net proceeds disbursed to the New York Women's Foundation Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA) September 11th Fund for New Americans – each chosen for their efforts on behalf of 9/11 victims least likely to receive help from other sources.

Under the alias of Nathanial Hörnblowér, Yauch directed iconic Beastie Boys videos including ‘So Whatcha Want’, ‘Intergalactic’, ‘Body Movin’ and ‘Ch-Check It Out’. Under his own name, Yauch directed last year's ‘Fight For Your Right Revisited’, an extended video for ‘Make Some Noise’ from Beastie Boys' Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, starring Elijah Wood, Danny McBride and Seth Rogen as the 1986 Beastie Boys, making their way through a half hour of cameo-studded misadventures b efore squaring off against Jack Black, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as Beastie Boys of the future.

Yauch's passion and talent for filmmaking led to his founding of Oscilloscope Laboratories, which in 2008 released his directorial film debut, the basketball documentary Gunnin' For That #1 Spot and has since become a major force in independent video distribution, amassing a catalogue of such acclaimed titles as Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy, Oren Moverman's The Messenger, Banksy's Exit Through The Gift Shop, Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze's Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait Of Maurice Sendak, and many more.

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