- Born
- Died
- Birth nameAdam Nathaniel Yauch
- Nicknames
- MCA
- Nathanael Hörnblöwer
- Sir Stewart Wallace
- Height5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
- Adam Yauch, an only child, was born on August 5, 1964 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Frances and Noel Yauch, who is a painter and architect. His father was Catholic (of Irish, German, and French descent) and his mother was Jewish. Adam attended Edward R. Murrow High School in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn. In high school, he taught himself to play the bass guitar. He formed Beastie Boys with John Berry, Kate Schellenbach, and Mike D. On his seventeenth birthday, they played their first show, then still a hardcore punk band in the vein of Reagan Youth. Adam attended Bard College for two years before dropping out.
Beastie Boys added Adam Horovitz to the group, and released their first album, Licensed to Ill, on Def Jam Records, now performing as a hip hop trio. They went on to open for Madonna on her famous "Like a Virgin" tour. The group gained huge success with numerous genius albums and tours, and founded their own label "Grand Royal Records" in 1993.
Under the pseudonym "Nathanial Hörnblowér", Yauch directed many of the Beastie Boys' music videos. In 2002, Yauch built a recording studio in New York City called Oscilloscope Laboratories. He began an independent film distributing company called Oscilloscope Pictures. Yauch directed the 2006 Beastie Boys concert film, although in the DVD extras for the film, the title character in "A Day in the Life of Nathanial Hörnblowér" is played by David Cross. He also directed the 2008 film Gunnin' For That #1 Spot about eight high school basketball prospects at the Boost Mobile Elite 24 Hoops Classic at Rucker Park in Harlem, New York City. Yauch produced Build a Nation, the comeback album from hardcore/punk band Bad Brains. Oscilloscope Laboratories also distributed Adam Yauch's directorial film debut, basketball documentary Gunnin' For That #1 Spot (2008) as well as Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy (2008) and Oren Moverman's The Messenger (2009).
Yauch was a practicing Buddhist. Inspired by his own extensive travels as well as the The Dalai Lama, Yauch became publicly passionate about the destructive, violent situation in Tibet, and created "The Milarepa Fund" in 1994 to help promote awareness and generate support around the world. He organized the first "Tibetan Freedom Concert" in San Francisco in 1996, which he followed with years of a similar series in the United States and worldwide. His Milarepa Fund has raised large sums of money for the Tibetan cause and its nonviolent Buddhist struggle to maintain an actual state of existence on the planet. In May of 1998, Adam married Dechen Wangdu, and they have a daughter named Tenzin Losel Yauch. Yauch has influenced an entire generation of human souls to look deep within themselves in search of a greater truth and a peaceful, compassionate understanding of all that surrounds us.
In 2009, Yauch was diagnosed and treated for a cancerous parotid gland and a lymph node, and underwent surgery and radiation therapy, delaying the release of Hot Sauce Committee Part Two and the subsequent tour. He was unable to appear in music videos for the album. Yauch became a vegan under the recommendation of his Tibetan doctors.
Beastie Boys had sold 40 million records worldwide by 2010. In 2011, Yauch received the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters from Bard College, the college he attended for two years. In April 2012, the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yauch was inducted in absentia due to his illness. His bandmates paid tribute to Yauch, and a letter from him was read to the crowd.
Adam Yauch died from cancer on May 4, 2012, in New York City. He was survived by his wife and son.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Robb Hand and K.P. Manning
- SpouseDechen Wangdu(July 24, 1998 - May 4, 2012) (his death, 1 child)
- He lived long enough to see the Beastie Boys inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- In April 2012, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his group Beastie Boys, however, he was too sick to attend the ceremony. His band-mates paid tribute to him by reading a letter he wrote in gratitude for the honor. The group was also set to perform, but chose not to due to his absence. He died about a month later.
- In many ways, he was the most unique of the Beastie Boys. He was the only member born and raised in Brooklyn and the only one not born under the sign of Scorpio (he was a Leo). The oldest of the Beastie Boys, he had a full beard while his band-mates still had baby fat. His raspy voice is distinct from Adam Horovitz's and Mike D's more nasal voices, and he converted to Buddhism, while his band-mates still consider themselves Jewish.
- He was straight-edged and a huge Minor Threat fan when the Beastie Boys first formed as a punk group. When they began to rap, Yauch, as did his band-mates, started to drink and do drugs. By the early 1990's, Yauch had quit substance abuse once again, but this time it was due to his converting to Buddhism.
- Directs many of the Beastie Boys videos under the identity of "Nathaniel Hörnblowér". Among the better known videos he has directed are the ones for "So What'cha Want", "Intergalactic", & "Ch-Check It Out". "Nathaniel Hörnblowér" (Yauch), with his bushy red hair and lederhosens, has made several public appearance, including his raiding of the stage so he could steal an award from the director of an R.E.M. video to give to Spike Jonze for directing Beastie Boys: Sabotage (1994) at the 1994 MTV Video Awards. It turns out that this incident was a prank gone wrong, as he was expecting Spike Jonze to win and thought it would be funny if "Nathaniel Hörnblowér" stole Spike Jonze's award.
- We started going in other MCs' crawl space to find out what's going on-not to steal any rhymes, but just to make sure no one's stealing from us.
- A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.
- I'm not a real movie star. I've still got the same wife I started out with twenty-eight years ago.
- I don't have a photograph, but you can have my footprints. They're upstairs in my socks.
- The energy that was in it more sincerely captured a concert than most things I'd seen, and I thought, wow, imagine multiplying this.
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