What was Adam Yauch’s Net Worth?
Adam Yauch, known by his stage name MCA, was a musician, film director, and human rights activist. He was a founding member of the hip-hop group the Beastie Boys and had a net worth of $75 million at the time of his death in 2012. Yauch also founded Oscilloscope Laboratories, an independent film production and distribution company based in New York City.
Tragically, Yauch passed away on May 4, 2012, at the age of 47 after a battle with cancer.
Early Life and Education
Adam Nathaniel Yauch, also known as MCA, was born on August 5, 1964, in Brooklyn to a Jewish social worker mother and a Catholic architect father. He grew up in a non-religious household as an only child. Yauch attended Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn where he taught himself how to play the bass guitar. He later dropped out of Bard College after attending for two years.
Adam Yauch’s Life and Career
In 1978, Adam Yauch formed the hardcore punk band Beastie Boys with John Berry, Kate Schellenbach, and Michael Diamond. They played their first gig on Yauch’s 17th birthday. Not long after Berry and Schellenbach left the band and Adam Horovitz (aka Ad-Rock) joined. In 1985, Yauch and his bandmates went on tour with pop star Madonna. The group fared much better the following year with the release of their first album Licensed to Ill. The album was a huge commercial success, and spawned six hit singles. Yauch directed many of the Beastie Boys’ music videos from this point forward, often under the pseudonym, Nathanial Hörnblowér.
The follow-up album, Check Your Head, was released in 1992 and was certified double Platinum in the US. Ill Communication, released in 1994, saw the Beastie Boys’ return to the top of the charts when the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Yauch was also involved in the Tibetan independence movement and organized the Tibetan Freedom Concert. Yauch and Beastie Boys released four more albums before disbanding: Hello Nasty (1998), To the 5 Boroughs (2004), The Mix-Up (2007), and Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011).
Adam Yauch’s Battle with Cancer and Death
In July 2009, doctors found a cancerous tumor on Adam Yauch’s salivary gland. The Beastie Boys canceled their summer tour so that Yauch could focus on getting better. Yauch underwent surgery and radiation treatment to treat the condition.
Despite his illness, The Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2012. However, Yauch was unable to attend the ceremony.
Tragically, on May 4, 2012, Adam Yauch passed away in New York City at the age of 47.
Adam Yauch: A Legacy of Social Activism
Adam Yauch was not only a musician but also a practicing Buddhist who became an important voice in the Tibetan independence movement. He created the Milarepa Fund, a non-profit organization devoted to Tibetan independence and organized several benefit concerts to support the cause, including the Tibetan Freedom Concert.
Yauch was also a feminist and apologized for the Beastie Boys’ earlier disrespectful lyrics towards women in the 1994 single “Sure Shot.” He met his wife, Tibetan American Dechen Wangdu, at a speech by the Dalai Lama at Harvard University and had a daughter, Tenzin Losel, the same year they married in 1998.
In 1998, Yauch condemned America’s wars in Muslim countries and prejudice against Muslims and Arabs during the MTV Video Music Awards. He was also a vegan on the recommendation of his doctors while being treated for cancer.
Yauch received the Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters from Bard College in 2011, and after his death, the Brooklyn Heights park he played in as a child was renamed Adam Yauch Park.
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