Two days ago the music world lost one of it's great performers. Legendary member of the New York based hip-hop group the Beastie Boys Adam Yauch, who performed under the name MCA, died Friday after a long bout with cancer. Yauch was 47.

Even though it was written by the an AP writer, I felt that this event had too be talked about, so I am doing the final beat post on this article posted on the Star Tribune website.

MCA, pictured above in the black blazer along side band mates Ad-Rock (right) and Mike D (left), was a legendary performer and lyrical genius with the Beastie Boys who's career spanned 33 years. The Beastie boys originally formed as a punk band in the mid 70s by Adam 'Ad Rock' Horovitz. Yauch joined later and Mike D a time after that, when they became a full time hip-hop trio.

That early punk influence was still heavily engrained into the Beastie Boys' music, enveloping heavy guitar riffs into the all encompassing genre that is hip-hop. World renowned for such hits as "Fight for Your Right," "Intergalactic" and "Sabotage," the Beastie Boys ushered in a new, goofy style of rap that hadn't quite been seen before. No matter how old they got, on stage they always looked like a group of teenagers just trying to have a good time. A personal favorite song of this writer is "No Sleep til Brooklyn," Yauch's lead verse begins at 2:30.

I have heard a lot of things said praising Yauch since his death. Some of them may be misremembering his impact a bit. I read one blog that called him the "Reverse Jackie Robinson of Rap." And yet another that suggested that he was the "John Lennon of a New Generation." I love MCA, but let's be fair to him. He was not Lennon, and he was Obviously not as important to rap as Robinson was to baseball. However, MCA was a wonderful musician and his death was a heavy blow to the music world.

As for the article written, it was very nice. It is exactly the way Yauch should be remembered I am glad that the Tribune ran it.

RIP MCA. You shall be missed.

    Author

    I'm a native Virginian who traveled to Milwaukee to study Journalism in the Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University. 

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