Charles Cross: Seattle fans love the Beastie Boys, Adam Yauch

Adam Yauch passed away at the age of 47 battling cancer. (beastieboys.com)

The music community is reeling after hearing of the death
of one of three members of the Beastie Boys, Adam Yauch.

Read the official statement from BeastieBoys.com

Yauch, also known as MCA, was only 47-years-old. The
cause of death isn’t known, but he was diagnosed with a
cancerous parotid gland in 2009.

Seattle music author Charles Cross tells the Ron and Don
Show Yauch was too ill to travel for the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame induction in April.

While critics may smirk about the high honors going to the
Beastie Boys, Cross says they really expanded the horizons
of what people thought of hip-hop or rap.

“White people had not really moved into that genre and
they were one of the first artists to open that up.
Consequently, they made hip-hop suddenly become way more
popular. Without the Beastie Boys, the success of hip-hop
as a dominant theme on rock radio would certainly never
have happened,” Cross says.

Of course, some of the first fans to latch on to their
experimental sound were in Seattle. Cross says outside of
New York, the Emerald City was one of the first places
they broke and hearts are heavy after hearing of Yauch’s
passing.

Beastie Boys was founded in 1979 along with Mike “Mike
D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horowitz. But Cross says
Yauch was really the brains behind the group and helped
push the limits.