It really is terrible news. I saw them with Run DMC in Paris - when they were at the height of Ill Communication…
And yet Rob Van Winkle continues to roam the earth.
Fuck Cancer.
This is horrible news. I’m not one to get upset over celebrity deaths, but this one is different. Fucking cancer.
MCAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, get on the mic, my man!
Cancer sucks.
The timing makes me all the more sad. My kid was just discovering them. Just last night, he found my old “Licence to Ill” cd and asked if he could borrow it. He loved it. I told him there were others cds somewhere, he should look for them after school today. I knew Adam was sick and that he didn’t attend the Hall of Fame Induction. I didn’t realize he was that sick. Now I have to tell my kid, “You know that great band you just discovered. One of the guys died.”
Ugh that does suck.
The Beastie Boys were the first of “my bands” to get inducted to the Rock Hall. I’m always blown the fuck away by their sampling and intertwining it with original music. I can never understand how people find this to not be “making music.” They are all so talented.
My mom calls them “that Jewish band” 
MCA, thanks for all the great music. I am gonna bump ‘Shake Your Rump’ now.
He’s been rocking this party eight days a week. I wore out not one but two copies of License to Ill on cassette.
RIP.
The first show I ever saw was The Dead Kennedys and The Beastie Boys opened up for them. That was in '83.
RIP.
Well, now I’m crying.
Dammit. What a great guy and legacy.
Sad to have him pass so early, but I was always ambivalent about them early on, and downright can’t stand their music anymore because it’s so overplayed. Now it really will become the trifecta with Nirvana and Sublime. Think I’ll be keeping away from the alternative station this week…
So sad. That photo just ate me up. And I can never get me enough Beastie Boys. No matter how overplayed some of their songs are, I always have another listen left in me. RIP, MCA.
I just heard this evening. What a shock, and so sad. I didn’t realize he was not over his bout with cancer. I’d certainly hoped he was healthy. I remember how good it felt to put on Hot Sauce Committee for the first time and hear MCA sound as good as he ever did:
I’ve been a fan since I was around 13 or earlier (I got License to Ill on cassette from an uncle, although I don’t think I listened to it right away), and I’ve always associated them with all kinds of good times. MCA was always my favorite because of that scratchy voice and because I respected and enjoyed his commitment to Buddhism. There was a period in the 2000s when the Beastie Boys were the only music that my mother and my youngest brother and all I agreed on. They were brilliant, they were fall-down hilarious, and in their entire career, there were only a couple of brief moments on one album when they weren’t fun. Even the Sabotage video remains a classic. So long to one of the greats. He had more rhymes than Phyllis Diller.
What – NOOOOOO!!! Fuck. 47. Damn, that’s way too fucking young.
I had a copy of it on cassette
The AP is running a terrific story about MCA right now.
One thing that struck me as I read it, is the lack of conflict in this guy’s life, band and art. Three white Jewish kids have a career in hip hop that spans over a quarter of a century, and they never had a feud with another rapper, never did prison time, etc. The outpouring of love towards MCA is incredible, and reflects well on just how cool he was. I don’t think there’s anyone that didn’t like and respect the guy.
That’s a great article, thank you.
I can’t claim to be more than a casual fan of their music, but they (and MCA in particular) have always struck me when I’ve seen or read interviews as such smart and profoundly cool guys. Speaking selfishly, I’m just not prepared for dead Beastie Boys. It feels like a nasty gut punch from the universe.
Beasties were the first band that spoke to me. I mean, music spoke to me, but they were the first band that said, ‘we’re saying what you want to be saying, how you’d want to say it’.
Damn cancer.