I know this is a comedy site, not a music site, and basically everyone on the internet knows about and is talking about the death at 48 of Adam Yauch, otherwise known as the Beastie Boys’ MCA. My input is probably not needed on the topic. But I feel like I need to say something about him, because my god was he a talented guy, and an influential guy, and a funny guy. That he died so young of something so terrible, cancer, feels like a punch in the stomach. It’s hard to go read about anything else right now.
But yes, MCA was fucking hilarious. That’s him above dressed as his alter ego Nathanial Hörnblowér storming the stage at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards to protest the Sabotage video (embedded below) losing out to REM. He also directed a number of the Beastie Boys’ videos under that pseudonym and obviously contributed a ton to the fun, irreverent tone of the lyrics of their songs. Like I said, you don’t need me to tell you these things. I’m not qualified to eulogize him. But I wanted to at least give some space to him on the page today, for whatever it’s worth (not much).
And if you’re also really upset about this, I highly recommend channeling your feelings of sadness and powerlessness into donations to a cancer research charity at JustGive.org. It won’t bring MCA back, but maybe it’ll help prevent another talented person from leaving us decades too soon.