Remembering Adam Yauch, “MCA”
Celebrity deaths aren’t normally my thing, but I was affected by this one.
When I was growing up my uncle was the coolest guy I knew. I wanted to be like him. He listened to the beastie boys, so I wanted to listen to the beastie boys. My parents hated the beastie boys. They didn’t want any of the albums in there house. At the time I didn’t understand why… My father had fond memories of the Rolling Stones. He’d often recall the performance of “let’s spend the night together” on the Ed Sullivan show where when forced to change the chorus to “let’s spend some time together” Mick Jagger rolled his eyes… It was the same thing to me. Regardless, my parents loved me and that was there thing. Somehow, the beastie boys still managed to find there way into my Sony 80watt shelf system. Little did i know that the Beastie Boys would become much more of a fixture in my life than just the obligatory generational misunderstanding between parents and youth.
Yesterday, my uncle text me 4 mins after Rolling Stone reported the news. It just kept coming after that… My friend from the church I grew up in retweeted the tweet mentioning me a few moments later. My best friend who is now a head chef text me that he was going to be serving a grainy mustard, dried cherry and apple compote for special, (mustard cherry apple) and calling it an MCA jam. A college buddy text me that he was smoking weed in his garage and listening to Pauls Boutique.
Unfortunately with the death of Adam Yauch we lost the Beastie Boys. There is no going on for that group without him. Somewhere along my life.. as my uncle was transforming into my older brother and later one of my best friends. “check your head” and “Ill communication” happened. I can remember him showing me the videos for “so what’cha want” and “sabotage” that he had taped off of MTV on VHS. My family didnt have cable television my entire youth. Those years I was learning all about what I believe rappers today call swag.
When I was growing up I was never one of the cool kids. As an adult I probably am even less cool. I mean here I am blogging about a dead beastie boy. That group didn’t care at all about fitting in, or alienating there fan base. That is probably what I took the most from them. Just not giving a rip. When the whole world was waiting for a License to Ill PT. 2 they said fuck it. We are going to take some time off and rent a sweet house, party and record this genre changing hip hop album. That album would of course be a commercial flop but later be heralded as one of the greatest albums of all time. I always felt like the Beastie Boys were one of us but just cooler. They made sense to me, I connected with there style, humor, and fashions. They never came off though on some hipster elite shit. They were for everyone. The Beasties wore Campus Adidas. I wore campus adidas. I went to a middle school that was white trash. I wouldn’t realize this until I went to a different high school that pulled from different neighborhoods that were better off than us, but that’s a different tumbl for a different day. My school was just mean. Before the retro suede shoes had there moment of glory, the beastie boys, my uncle and my brothers all had them. You either had to mail order them or venture to a mall in a more urban setting. I was pretty much ridiculed for wearing them to school. I didn’t care though, I knew they were sweet. Later, Kurt cobain would be photographed dead wearing a pair of converse one stars, and the retro shoes would have there moment in the mainstream. For many years though… Cargo pants or dickies, campus adidas and a properly distressed punk rock t-shirt with an ironic logo would be my “look”
Adam Yauch seemed like one of the good guys. He started as a total nut and evolved into this social conscious philanthropist. He was rough, and crude… And had this self deprecating humor. The thing that makes me sad is I know a lot of people like Adam Yauch that are here right now, but one day won’t be. We all have to leave this world someday, and that just sucks. I have a lot of memories with really special people in my life, and this groups music always there. I just dont want to see anyone go…Seeing one of the good guys go reminds you of our own mortality. So while we are here, always be moving things forward. I have said way too much in this… I will leave you with a line from the late great.
“I’ve been coming to where I am, from the get go
Find that I can groove with the beat when I let go
So put your worries on hold
Get up and groove with the rhythm in your soul”
