Beastie Boys' Adam 'MCA' Yauch dead at 47  Greg Kot  2:35 PM
CDT, May 4, 2012    “Role model” – Yauch, who died Friday at age
47 after a three-year battle with throat cancer, would have
hated that term. But he became one almost in spite of the
Beastie Boys’ early reputation as foul-mouthed innovators.  "To
become this gentle Buddhist soul who literally would not step on
a fly was something else," said his friend, Rage Against the
Machine guitarist Tom Morello, shortly after the news of Yauch's
death was announced. "His commitment to social justice and
especially to Tibet's freedom put it on the map for an entire
generation of people."  Michael "Mike D" Diamond, Adam "Ad-Rock"
Horowitz and Adam "MCA" Yauch were still in their mid-teens when
they formed a hardcore punk band in New York City during the
early ‘80s, before crossing over into hip-hop.  At the time, it
wasn't exactly commonplace for white kids to be rapping, but the
cultural implications "didn't really occur to us at the time,"
Diamond once told the