RIP, MCA Adam Yauch



It is the end of an era; the party is over. For people who grew up in the 80s -- particularly New Yorkers -- the death of Adam Yauch, aka "MCA" of the Beastie Boys is a hard pill to swallow. They were the sountrack to our most carefree and fun years. It is not supposed to end in death. These guys, from Stuyvesant High School -- the Specialized New York Public School -- represented the height of satirical, fun rap, crossing the color barrier. Until then hip-hop was almost entirely of the inner city, almost entirely belonging to brown people. But of course it was not and is not. Rap was -- and is -- the new punk rock.

48 years of age is far too short a lifespan, particularly for a humanitarian as talented as he was. May he rest in peace.

Here are some of the high profile testimonials coming across social media fast and furious (UPDATED):

Fab 5 Freddy: "Rest In Power to my old friend MCA from the Beastie Boys! I always loved his raspy voiced delivery and his sense of humor. A real good guy."
Slash: "Sad day. MCA was fucking awesome. RIP man. We'll miss you very much."
Sasha Frere-Jones, music critic: "Fucking fucking fuck."
Kim Hastreiter, Paper magazine publisher and editor: "rip beasty boy adam yauch. i am so sad to hear this."

DJ Eko: "need to locate some brass monkey pronto"

Samantha Ronson: "wow- RIP Adam Yauch- #MCA"
Anil Dash: "One of the most profound things the Beasties and MCA did was show us how people can evolve, from silly boys to serious artists."

Occupy Wall Street Twitter Feed: "Adam Yauch marched with us in November over the Brooklyn Bridge. He was a visionary artist who never lost sight of his community. #RIP"
Joanna Angel, porn star: "Aw man !!! No !! Not a cool and talented Jew from new York . No !!! I am not ok with this . Fuck . #ripmca

Senator Charles Schumer (or, more likely a very cool staffer manning his Twitter account) "Born and Bred in Brooklyn, U.S.A., they call him Adam Yauch, but he's M.C.A. RIP Adam. #beastieboys #nosleeptillbrooklyn"

McLean Greaves: "RIP MCA. Your work lives on forever"
John Hodgeman: "Adam Yauch has passed away. Very, very sad."

Chris C. Turner: "Everyone between the age of 20 and 40 should be allowed to leave work right now and go drink Brass Monkey."