Adam Yauch, 1964–2012

The Beastie Boys started out behaving like drunken louts given to crass and angry rants. But founding member Adam Yauch eventually broke new ground for rap music, not just with his grooves but also with his thoughtfulness. He rapped one of his most famous rhymes in 1994: “I wanna say a little something that’s long overdue / Disrespecting women has got to be through.”

Born in Brooklyn, Yauch formed the Beastie Boys as a hard-core punk band with his high school friend Mike Diamond in 1979, said The New York Times. Once Adam Horovitz was on board, the trio recorded a rap record in 1983 as a joke “but found that audiences liked it better than their punk rock.” The scratchy-voiced Yauch—aka MCA—played a key role in transforming the Beastie Boys from “testosterone-driven pranksters” who cavorted onstage with go-go dancers to “sonic experimenters” who released albums like Paul’s Boutique (1989), a rap-rock-jazz hybrid that “musicians inside and outside hip-hop have praised as a landmark.”

Yauch’s 1992 video for the single “So What’cha Want,” which he produced under the “nom de film” Nathanial Hornblower, “was the first of many artistic endeavors that would set Yauch apart from the rest of the group,” said the New York Post. Around the same time, he began “searching for something more than being a Beastie Boy,” converting to Buddhism and setting up a charity, the Milarepa Fund, to promote Tibetan independence. He organized charity concerts featuring performers such as Yoko Ono, Radiohead, U2, and R.E.M., raising more than $2 million for the cause.

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Yauch branched out into film during the 2000s, said LATimes.com, directing a Beastie Boys concert film in 2006 and a documentary about high school basketball, Gunnin’ for That #1 Spot, in 2008. His film company, Oscilloscope Pictures, “quickly made its mark” by distributing the acclaimed pictures The Messenger (2009), Meek’s Cutoff (2010), and We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011).

Yauch’s final public statement came just weeks ago, when his band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Unable to attend because of his advanced cancer, he sent a letter sharing the honor with “anyone who has been touched by our band, who our music has meant something to.”