Adam Yauch rapped as MCA in the Beastie Boys. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. Adam was a ringleader. The music only became more complicated, satirical. ~I
Beasties were loved by just about everybody, so there were lots of tributes paid to Adam over the w-end, including one from Chris Martin. Check it out below.
MCA AND THE BEASTIE BOYS
They offered many listeners in the 1980s their first exposure to hip-hop. They were vanguard white rappers who helped extend the art of sampling and gained the respect of their African-American peers.
While many hip-hop careers are brief, the Beastie Boys appealed not only to the fans they reached in the 1980s but to successive generations, making million-selling albums into the 2000s. They grew up without losing their sense of humor or their ear for a party beat.
Mr. Yauch (pronounced yowk) was a major factor in the Beastie Boys’ evolution from their early incarnation, as testosterone-driven pranksters, to their later years as sonic experimenters, as socially conscious rappers — championing the cause of freedom in Tibet — and as keepers of old-school hip-hop memories. The Beastie Boys became an institution — one that could have arisen only amid the artistic, social and accidental connections of New York City.
In the history of hip-hop, the Beastie Boys were both improbable and perhaps inevitable: appreciators, popularizers and extrapolators of a culture they weren’t born into.
Could Jake Bugg be the new Bob Dylan? We've heard that line before, but once we've experienced the creative, solid, diverse 14 tracks of his debut "Jake Bugg" CD, it's hard not to go there.
For those of us looking for musical companionship amidst the frenzied pace of daily life, consider American singer-songwriter Josh Ritter's newest "Beast in its Tracks" release.