R.I.P. MCA of the Beastie Boys

Left to Right: Mike D, Ad-Rock, the late MCA

Great sadness today to hear of the death of Adam Yaunch, aka MCA of the Beastie Boys. MCA had been battling cancer for a few years and missed the band's deserved induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last month.

MCA was like the George Harrison of hip-hop: the third banana in the biggest group, with a devotion to Eastern mysticism (he was a Buddhist) and a great sense of humor, who produced films and staged benefit shows (the Tibetan Freedom Concerts).

The Beasties were true rap pioneers, doing what Elvis did with rock & roll - taking the black man's music and making it their own.

But one of the things that made them really interesting was the way they experimented with other types of music, from hardcore to jazz instrumentals to straight-up arena rock like "Sabotage," driven by MCA's strummed bass line.

I saw the Beasties at Lollapalooza in 1994 on Randall's Island in NYC, probably the same week as the above appearance on Letterman. They performed in orange prison jumpsuits and rocked the house, far out-rocking the headlining Smashing Pumpkins, who I stopped liking after their obnoxious performance that night.

Their fantastic LP Ill Communication was one of the key records of my summer of '94 soundtrack (along with Beck's Mellow Gold, Urge Overkill's Saturation and Hole's Live Through This), and for that I thank them.

When my homies and I needed to do some pre-gaming before heading downtown, we would break it down and put on "Root Down."



R.I.P., MCA. Because you can't, you won't and you don't stop.

Buy the Beastie Boys' Ill Communication on iTunes here.