It was just reported earlier today that Adam Yauch, who was MCA from The Beastie Boys, has passed away. He lost his three-year battle with cancer early on Friday, May 5th, 2012. He was only 47 years old.
He was also well-known for his activist work in Tibet, and contributing to the Free Tibet movement. He is survived by his wife (whom he met while in Tibet, both were attending a speech by the Dali Lama) and their fourteen-year-old daughter.

News link.

These guys were a part of my childhood and adolescence growing up, hell, License to Ill came out when I was only two, and were still there when I went to college, and beyond. I'm not a super-fan or anything, but I guess I'm still kind of a fan, hell, it's a bit hard not to be, in my opinion, I mean, it's The Beastie Boys. I still listen to their songs on the radio and YouTube, from their oldest hits to their newest ones, I have a couple MP3's of their songs, and, even if I wasn't a huge fan of a particular song, I still always ended up liking the video. These guys always managed to bring a smile to my face, it's hard to imagine that they're even nearly fifty, much less that one of them is now gone.

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R.I.P. Adam "MCA" Yauch.
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The best thing about him, well two things:

His music with the Beastie Boys

and

He never gave up fighting. He fought till the very end. Though he will be dearly missed by his adoring fans, he is no longer in pain.

R.I.P MCA