Of the articles I read I've so far in the immediate wake of the news of the death of Adam Yauch, aka MCA from the Beastie Boys, most have consisted of memories of either meeting MCA and the boys, or having them sound-track some important time in your life.
Being a Hip-Hop head from the little city of Adelaide, I fall firmly into the second group. I never met MCA, and only (regrettably) saw the Beasties once. At the time that their fame and influence was at it's peak, I was poor, and barely had enough cash to purchase my Ill Communication and Hello Nasty cd's, let alone afford concert tickets. However, even if I was cash-poor, and grew up in the country, I had those tapes and cd's, and they fucking awesome.
So, what do I remember about those Beastie Boys and more specifically, MCA?
Was it listening to Pauls Boutique a long time after I already should have and realizing what an idiot I was? Even in 1996, an album loaded with that many old-school samples was already a historical artifact. By that stage (and because of albums like Pauls Boutique), sampling had become highly litigious and very expensive, and the idea that you could use more than one or two samples in your songs was impossible, even for bigger acts like Notorious BIG and Tupac.
Was it sitting in my car at basketball on a random Friday night in 94, cold, but with a couple of friends geeking out over the 'Get it together' remix, a track that I'd been tracking down for weeks (in a time before downloading was an option). It was cool the first time I heard the following lyrics blasting on my tapedeck and out through the speakers... I'm the M to the C to the A and it's a must, the rhymes that we bust on the topic on lust
Was it getting blazed and watching 'So Watcha Want?' on Rage in early hours of Sunday morning (this happened more than once), with MCA in his beanie waxing lyrical "Well I'm as cool as a cucumber in a bowl of hot sauce/ You've got the rhyme and reason but no cause/ Well if you're hot to trot you think you're slicker than grease/ I've got news for you crews you'll be sucking like a leech".
There are many more, and as soon as I'm finished writing, I'm going to enjoy remembering more.
MCA always seemed like the elder statesman to me. The ever-graying hair he sported in their video's belied his boyish braggadocio on record, and they gave his lyrics an air of sage-like wisdom. He grew in to the leadership role gracefully, becoming an ambassador for Tibetan Freedom and the director of some the Beasties best video's.
The day I found out that video director Nathaniel Hornblower was in fact MCA, I wasn't surprised. Indeed, it seemed like they Beasties could do anything, and it was only later that I realized that MCA's work ethic was responsible for a lot of it. They had their own record label and signed Ben Lee (when he was still cool), and they had their own magazine (Grand Royal), that was a pre-cursor to the culture-trolling hipster publications and websites that are prevalent today.
He founded his own production company, which is undeniably cool. To find great directors and great scripts, finance them and see them turn into movies like Meeks Cutoff and We need to talk about Kevin? It's a phenomenal achievement, and I bet Adam enjoyed every minute of it.
I will never achieve as much as MCA achieved in his time, and I will never have the cache of irrevocable cool that he, Ad-Rock and Mike D had, but that's ok, because that was his thing, and he lead as full a life as one could have in the short time he walked with us.
Vale MCA, may the angels be bumping 'Shake your rump' tonight.
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