Yet another death in the musical world has beset upon us. One of the founders of the legendary music trio The Beastie Boys has passed. Adam Yauch, best known as MCA to fans of the Caucasian hip hop band, died after a battle with cancer, from a complication of a tumor found in his salivary gland, reports Rolling Stone. He was 48.
The Beastie Boys, comprised of Yauch, along with Mike “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horowitz, carved their own niche during the tail end of rap music’s first wave. Starting as a hardcore punk band in 1979, the Brooklyn, NY-based group became best known as the goofy nonsensically yet no-nonsense hip hop mavens who exploded in a huff of success with their 1986 release License to Ill. That record, and its accompanying single and perpetually run MTV video of “Fight For Your Right (To Party)”, put them as equal cohorts with their peers and like-minded artists during that era in the rap/hip hop ring, even surpassing many of those other artists who explored similar styles and genres.
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