Beastie Boys Founder Adam Yauch Has Died

Adam Nathaniel Yauch who was born on August 5 1964 was a founding member of the Beastie Boys.He is known as his stage name MCA. Adam was an only child in Brooklyn New York, the son of Frances and Noel Yauch who was a painter and architect.Adam's father was Catholic and his mother was Jewish.He taught himself to play the bass guitar in high school and formed Beastie Boys with John Berry,Kate Schellenbach and Michael Diamond.They played their first show then a hardcore punk band in the vein of Reagan Youth on his 17th birthday while still attending school at Edward R. Murrow High School in the Midwood neighborhood in Brooklyn.Adam attended Bard College for 2 years before dropping out.When Adam was 22 the Beastie Boys performing as a hip-hop trio released their first album Licensed To III on Def Jam Records.Adam directed many of the Beastie Boys music videos under the pseudonym Nathaniel Hornblower.Adam made his directorial debut as Hornblower at the 1994 MTV Music Video Awards as he took the stage in costume to protest R.E.M who won the award for Best Direction over Spike-Jonze directed Beastie Boys video Sabotage.Adam also directed the 2006 Beastie Boys concert film Awesome:I Fuc*in Shot That.Adam also directed the 2008 film Gunnin For That #1 Spot about 8 high school basketball prospects at the Boost Mobile Elite 24 Hoops at Rucker Park in Harlem New York City.Adam built a recording studio in New York City called Oscilloscope Laboratories in 2002 and produced Build A Nation the comeback album from hardcore punk band Bad Brains.Oscilloscope Laboratories distributed Adam's directorial film debut documentary Gunnin For That #1 Spot as well as Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy(2008)and Oren Movemar The Messenger (2009).

Beastie Boys sold 40 million albums worldwide by 2010.The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2012.Adam was inducted as absentia due to his illness with his bandmates paying tribute to him on the stage.Adam received the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters from Bard College in 2011.Adam was a practicing Buddhist.He was diagnosed with cancerous parotic gland and a lymph node and underwent surgery and radiation therapy delaying the group's album release and tour.Adam became a vegan under the recommendation by his Tibetan doctors.Adam and his wife had a daughter in 1998.Adam died on May 4th at age 47.





May Angels Keep You Safe And Warm Adam Yauch We Will Miss You.R.I.P Adam Yauch