Another one of my “heroes” has died.

I first heard Beastie Boys when I was in high school. I still remember the incredible energy and excitement when I heard songs such as “Fight for your right”. This was the totally new sound of hip-hop and to me it was the sound of rebellion. As a normal teenager growing up in small-city Adelaide Australia, it felt revolutionary. While most kids were into rock and roll, suddenly a totally new sound was in town. I remember a few like minded kids as myself dressing up with baggy sweat suits, sneakers, and baseball caps and playing hip-hop loudly. Adam Yauch was benevolent and stood up for causes such as Tibetan freedom. 

I am saddened by another one of my teenage heroes has passed away. And I had planned the next time Beastie Boys tour Japan I would definitely go (I wanted to see Beastie Boys live). It is another group which I grew up with that I can never see whole, such as Bee Gees, Men at Work, Michael Jackson. Now I have made more resolve to see any one of my teenage favorites as soon as possible. Life is short and death is near always.

Loss of the Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch felt across borders – Chicago Sun-Times

Sadness after the news Friday that Yauch, 47, died after a three-long year battle with throat cancer cut across all kinds of demographics, just as the Beastie Boys’ hip-hop managed to do.

Adam “MCA” Yauch, a founding member of the groundbreaking Brooklyn punk band-turned-rap trio with Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, was “the benevolent Beastie” — a fierce and angry young voice in the beginning, but one who matured, became a filmmaker (launching his own Oscilloscope Pictures) and committed himself to social change. A Buddhist, Yauch used his fame to raise awareness for the Tibetan independence movement (organizing several Tibetan Freedom Concerts in the late ’90s) and created a nonprofit to support the cause (the Milarepa Fund).

The Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame just three weeks ago, but Yauch was not in attendance. During the ceremony in Cleveland, Diamond and Horovitz read a letter from Yauch. “For anyone who has been touched by our band, who our music has meant something to, this induction is as much ours as it is yours,” it said.