[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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'We gotta fight, for our right, to party"!
Who?
man, I had Sabotage as my ringtone for the longest time, this makes me sad.
MCA will be missed greatly.
"Chuck D of Public Enemy was quoted as saying that the "dirty secret" among the black hip-hop community at the time of release was that "Paul's Boutique had the best beats."
Now that's saying something.
R.I.P., thanks for the music and the memories.
I grew up listening to the beastie boys. Because I was black, a lot of people thought that was weird. I'm sad now. RIP Adam.
That's a very cruel and mean spirited thing to say
My condolences to the families. However, and with all due respect, this isn't really breaking news.
Very sad news...RIP Adam
It is so sad to hear of his passing. He was involved in many great causes as well as his musical genius.
The Media will cite Licensed to Ill, but they really didn't break new ground until Paul's Boutique. Like many times in the past with truely great art, it was ahead of it's time and perhaps it's audience. I eventually caught up to it, and so did many others as they pumped out hits and went where no one had been before.
Too young to go, but he had years of battle with cancer.
May you be in peace, which was one of your great causes as a supporter of political/religious freedom here on Earth.
Sad New. Going to bump "beastie" songs all day in honor of MCA
This is very upsetting... Too bad. I love the Beastie Boys. My Condolences to the group and the family
Rip
Guess now they'll have to change the band name to; Two Beasties, and One Deceased-T boy.......
You're an idi0t.
You're right, whoever said that is an idiot. Regardless of how offensive someone may find the term "wigger", fact is, the Beastie Boys were a very unique form of rap and in no way tried to mimic the inner city african style like say Vanilla Ice, Third Base, or Eminem. It was really a whole different form, and after their first album they mixed in a lot more use of instruments and sounds. BB were nothing like the stereotypical white guys trying to be black. Not even close. They were more hippies than anything.