[Updated at 3:03 p.m. ET] Adam "MCA" Yauch, a founding member of the pioneering rap band the Beastie Boys, has died after a nearly three-year battle with cancer, the band's publicist said Friday. He was 47.
Yauch revealed in July 2009 that he had surgery for cancer in a salivary gland and a lymph node.
What is salivary gland cancer?
Yauch's death comes less than a month after the Beastie Boys were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Because of his fight with cancer, Yauch did not attend, Rolling Stone magazine reported.
The Beastie Boys – Yauch, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz and Michael "Mike D" Diamond – did not perform that night. But Horovitz read a letter from Yauch to the audience.
"I'd like to dedicate this to my brothers Adam and Mike," Yauch wrote, according to Rolling Stone. "They walked the globe with me. It's also for anyone who has ever been touched by our band. This induction is as much ours as it is yours."
Yauch's cancer delayed the release of the band's most recent album, "Hot Sauce Committee Part Two," for two years. It was supposed to come out in 2009 but instead was released in spring 2011.
The Beastie Boys' debut album, 1986's "Licensed to Ill" – featuring the singles "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)," "No Sleep Till Brooklyn," "Paul Revere" and "Brass Monkey" – was the first rap album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard album charts.
Yauch was a founding member of the group, which played for the first time at his birthday party in 1981, according to the band’s Facebook page.
He converted to Buddhism in the 1990s after visiting Nepal and hearing the Dalai Lama speak in Arizona, he told the Buddhist magazine Shambhala Sun in 1995.
As a Buddhist, Yauch became an advocate for Tibetan freedom, organizing concerts involving the Beastie Boys and other acts to raise money for the cause, including the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in 1996. Several similar concerts followed.
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RIP MCA -Paul's Boutique..Flipped so many times in my deck it broke.
God Speed Bro
Commercially, that was their least popular one, but most fans including myself know it was the best.
Don't feed the trolls. Thx.
"Licensed to Ill" was my very first cassette purchased as a kid. I was 9yrs at the time. I am now 34 years old. You are never too old to listen to the The Beastie Boys....RIP MCA!!
So very sad, at such a young age you were exposed to such crap music.
Is it OK if I play Check Your Head? That was always my fave.
I got rhymes like I got gray hairs, and thats alot because I got my share....
Right on, man!
I guess it was "time to get ill". He will be forgotten.
RIP MCA!
Thanks for everything!
I am with you. A great album. We are losing so many artist who defined a generation lately. The Beasties were one of the best when it comes to defining the 80's. RIP MCA
Thank you MCA. You will be missed. Paul's Boutique was such a masterpiece. That album defines an age for me. RIP.
grow up people. they suck.
Just because someone passed away does not mean we need torture our stuff with the noise he made.
Especially THAT crap!
We used to dance off of that song Brass Monkey all night! RIP Adam and thanks for the great memories and great times!
RIP man. You had a great, albeit short life.
I was 12 years old when License came out. Remember it like it was yesterday. R.I.P MCA. Sad day today.