Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys dies at 47

In this photo from 2006, Beastie Boys mem­bers Adam Yauch “MCA,” right, Adam Horovitz “Adrock,” cen­ter, and Mike Dia­mond “Mike D,” reflected in a mir­ror, pose for a pho­to­graph dur­ing an inter­view in Toronto. Yauch, the grav­elly voiced Beastie Boys rap­per who co-founded the sem­i­nal hip-hop group, has died at age 47. The cause of death wasn’t imme­di­ately known. Yauch was diag­nosed with a can­cer­ous parotid gland in 2009. (For the Asso­ci­ated Press | Aaron Harris)

JAKE COYLE

AP Enter­tain­ment Writer

NEW YORK — Adam Yauch, the grav­elly voiced Beastie Boys rap­per and the most con­sci­en­tious mem­ber of the sem­i­nal hip-hop group, has died. He was 47.

Yauch’s rep­re­sen­ta­tives con­firmed that the rap­per died Fri­day morn­ing in New York after a nearly three-year bat­tle with cancer.

Also known as MCA, Yauch was diag­nosed with a can­cer­ous sali­vary gland in 2009. At the time, Yauch expressed hope it was “very treat­able,” but his ill­ness caused the group to can­cel shows and delayed the release of their 2011 album, “Hot Sauce Com­mit­tee, Pt. 2.”

He hadn’t per­formed in pub­lic since 2009 and was absent when the Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month.

“Adam Yauch was a pio­neer who broke ground with his music and intro­duced hip-hop to a wider audi­ence,” said Terry Stew­art, pres­i­dent of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Brooklyn-born Yauch cre­ated the Beastie Boys with high school friend Michael “Mike D” Dia­mond. Orig­i­nally con­ceived as a hard­core punk group, it became a hip-hop trio soon after Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz joined. They released their chart-topping debut “Licensed to Ill” in 1986, a rau­cous album led by the anthem “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)”.

Rus­sell Sim­mons, whose Def Jam label released “Licensed to Ill,” said on his web­site: “Adam was incred­i­bly sweet and the most sen­si­tive artist, who I loved dearly. I was always inspired by his work.”

In the seven stu­dio albums that fol­lowed, the Beastie Boys expanded con­sid­er­ably and grew more musi­cally ambi­tious. Their follow-up, 1989’s “Paul’s Bou­tique,” ended any sug­ges­tion that the group was a one-hit won­der. Exten­sive in its sam­pling and son­i­cally lay­ered, the album was ranked the 156th great­est album ever by Rolling Stone mag­a­zine in 2003.

The Beastie Boys would later take up their own instru­ments — a rar­ity in hip-hop — on the album “Check Your Head” and sub­se­quent releases.

The trio of white Jew­ish kids estab­lished them­selves as one of the most respected groups in hip-hop at a time when white rap­pers were few.

Intro­duc­ing the group at the Rock Hall, Pub­lic Enemy rap­per Chuck D said the Beastie Boys “broke the mold.”

“The Beastie Boys are indeed three bad broth­ers who made his­tory,” Chuck D said. “They brought a whole new look to rap and hip-hop. They proved that rap could come from any street — not just a few.”

Yauch also went under the pseu­do­nym Natha­nial Horn­blower when work­ing as a film­maker. He directed numer­ous videos for the group, as well as the 2006 con­cert film “Awe­some: I F——- Shot That!” He also co-founded the film dis­tri­b­u­tion com­pany Osci­ol­lo­scope Lab­o­ra­to­ries, named after his New York studio.

Yauch is sur­vived by his wife, Dechen Wangdu, and his daugh­ter, Ten­zin Losel Yauch.

Posted by AP News on May 4 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.