The Beastie Boys.

RIP Adam "MCA" Yauch.

MCA passed away from cancer after a three year battle with the disease on Friday. I basically keep this a strictly skateboarding website because everybody's got their own opinions about music and we don't need another Jane's Addiction/Red Hot Chili Peppers comment feud, but sometimes events happen that are so relevant to skateboarding that I would feel remiss in not addressing them. Such is the case with the death of MCA.

The Beastie Boys were undeniably a huge influence on skateboarding and the culture that goes along with it, especially in the big pants/small wheels days from 1992 to 1994. Their music is something that I associate very closely with that era. They were a big influence before and after that time as well, but that's when I was listening to them the most.

Obviously, their tapes got heavy play in the car while driving from spot to spot. They were in the videos, including Mike Carroll's groundbreaking part in Plan B's Questionable. The use of "The Biz vs. The Nuge" and "Time For Livin" set the tone perfectly for the modern street skating Carroll was about to throw down. I don't know how much anybody in the band actually skated, but they came across as being down with skateboarding and that mattered because skateboarding was very small in those days.

I think the Beastie Boys, and to a slightly lesser extent Sonic Youth, were the ones who served the purpose of the internet as a means of disseminating information to the people who needed know. The Beasties seemed like older siblings who clued you into all the cool stuff out there in the world that you didn't know about. The fashion, the sneakers, obscure Japanese baseball players, hip hop, basketball, old punk rock and hardcore... the list goes on and on.

My condolences to the band, their families and friends.

The photo is by Glen E. Friedman.

Transworld - July 1992 Volume 10 Number 7