Adam Yauch, AKA MCA, dead at 48

kunst nugget wrote: »

I think to label them as rap rock is completely reductive. As an act they were so much more expansive. Listen to the tapestry of sampling that was Paul's Boutique or the funk and punk workouts that permeated Check Your Head and Ill Communication. They were a band in love with music in every shape and form and receptive to wherever their muse would take them and sounded like they were having a blast in the process.

Couldn't agree more with ya on that,I hate 'labels' in music,fookin genres n sub genres,but,alas the market likes to pigeon hole artists so with that in mind we generally tend to talk about artists by virtue of their recognized pigeon hole,The Beasties been labelled 'Rap-Rock' and 'Hip Hop' .

Very few rappers would get a serious thread in after hours, that shows their wide range of support whereas most other acts would get a "lol rap" reaction.

Posted in the thread in the Rock & Metal forum, but decided to do so here too...


Ah no! This is very sad indeed, I'm a massive fan of the Beastie Boys, possibly my favourite rap group, they put so many different styles into their music, Licence To Ill was their first massively successful release with had variations of Rock/Metal music with badass Hip Hop vocals too, as well as plenty of stupidly cool beat driven tracks. Check Your Head and Ill Communication will be up there with two of the greatest albums from the 90's. I'm now happy that I got to play two of my favourite Beastie tracks on my radio show while I could ("Sure Shot" and "So What'cha Want").

Adam brought this coolness to Beastie Boys tracks that wouldn't be there if it wasn't for his cool rhymes and the slight roughness to his vocals, his lyric in "Intergalactic" that goes "If you try to knock me, you'll get mocked; I'll stir fry you in my wok" is probably my favourite in music! It's so cool and badass, but at the same time it has got this nerdy humour. And it makes it all so terrible that he was only 47, I remember hear about his cancer ages ago, and I remember thinking not too recently that he's been with it a long time, maybe that he was well onto recovery. So sad.

Thanks for the music, Adam Yauch (MCA). Thoughts with his friends and family.