Just about a year ago, to the day, the music and film-making communities lost one of their most innovative sons, MCA of the Beastie Boys, Adam Yauch. And while it’s ultimately a trivial gesture, perhaps the best (and only) manner for this site to pay homage is in this form, to our man MCA, who had a beard like a billy goat.
Aside from being a member of one of rap’s pioneering groups, not just because of their complexion, but because of their willingness to fuse different sounds together via sampling (Paul’s Boutique) or instrumentation (Check Your Head and Ill Communication), Yauch also found time for other endeavors. Yauch founded Oscilloscope Laboratories, a studio which has fostered many independent film projects, as well as allowed Yauch himself to scratch his directorial itch, previously only done under his alias Nathaniel Hornblower. His adherence to Buddhism not only guided his humanitarian efforts in fundraising for a free Tibet, but also influenced his lyrical content as well, both subtly in anti-violence, anti-misogyny messages, and explicit in songs like “Bodhisattva Vow”. But most importantly, Yauch showed that it is possible to evolve into an adult with a progressive set of views even if in his early twenties he performed with a giant inflatable penis as his band’s primary on-stage prop.
