{"id":27736,"date":"2012-05-04T16:27:02","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T21:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=27736"},"modified":"2012-05-04T16:46:00","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T21:46:00","slug":"rip-mca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=27736","title":{"rendered":"RIP MCA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adam Yauch – “MCA”, of the Beastie Boys” – dead of cancer at 47<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Mr. Yauch, who went by the moniker MCA, had been battling cancer since 2009, when a tumor was discovered in his salivary gland. He did not come to the Beastie Boys induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April and his treatments for the illness forced the group to delay the release of their last album \u201cHot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emerging from the hard-core punk scene in New York in the late 1970s, the Beastie Boys were the first white group to successfully sing rap songs and have remained popular for more than a quarter century. Mr. Yauch co-founded the group with Mike Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) as a punk band in 1981 and first began experimenting with hip-hop the following year, when they released a 12-inch vinyl rap spoof \u201cCookie Puss.\u201d All three were teenagers from affluent New York families when they met.<\/p>\n

But in 1986, they crossed into the rap mainstream with \u201cLicensed to Ill,\u201d which was the first hip-hop album to hit No. 1 on the albums chart and featured hits like \u201c(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)\u201d and \u201cBrass Monkey.\u201d It was just the first of a string of hit records, like 1989\u2019s \u201cPaul\u2019s Boutique,\u201d 1992\u2019s \u201cCheck Your Head\u201d and 1994\u2019s \u201cIll Communication.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the fun times from my twenties just keep on passing along.<\/p>\n

I wrote about the Beasties at some length last year, in my “Real Eighties<\/a>” series,in my “Things I’m Supposed to Hate But Don’t<\/a>” series, and life with the Beasties in the clubs back in the day<\/a>, when Paul’s Boutique <\/em>was just about the best thing in the history of hip-hop.<\/p>\n

Here’s one of my favorites:<\/p>\n