From Global Grind:
Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys has passed away at the age of 47. GlobalGrind has confirmed this very sad news.
One of our heroes, Adam Yauch aka MCA of the Beastie Boys, passed away this morning after a long bout with cancer.
Yauch was a member of the groundbreaking, incredibly innovative and creative group, The Beastie Boys, with his two friends, Mike D and Ad-Roc, which changed our culture forever.
Yauch was born an only child in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Frances and Noel Yauch, a painter and architect. His father was Catholic and his mother was Jewish.
Throughout high school, he taught himself to play the bass guitar. The Beasties first show, then still a hardcore punk band, while still attending Edward R. Murrow High School in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Yauch attended Bard College for two years before dropping out. Two years later, at the age of 22, the Beastie Boys, now performing as a hip-hop trio, released their first album Licensed to Ill on Def Jam Records.
In 2009, Yauch was treated for a cancerous parotid gland and a lymph node and underwent surgery and radiation therapy. He later made a video announcement about his diagnosis.
He is survived by his wife and daughter. He was 47.
Man. Even up until January of 2011, it looked like Adam Yauch was going to pull through this whole cancer thing, and then this happens. It’s a shame. I hate when musicians I like die, especially when their music played such an integral part of my adolescence.
RIP Adam.