“Now my name is M.C.A. I’ve got a license to kill;
I think you know what time it is, it’s time to get ill.
Now what do we have here, an outlaw and his beer.
I run this land, you understand; I make myself clear.”
–“Paul Revere”, Beastie Boys
Adam Yauch, MCA of The Beastie Boys, died this morning of cancer. While other celebs’ deaths have impacted me for one reason or another, the death of MCA feels different. He’s of my age group and The Beasties were the first of what I consider my odd “type” to reach fame. Beasties have been part of my personal soundtrack since my sophomore year of college. The album “Licensed to Ill” lived in the cassette deck of my first car (truck). I don’t think I’ve gone a week without listening to at least one of their songs since.
Yauch was a Leo Sun, Cancer Moon. He grew up in Brooklyn with a Catholic father and a Jewish mother and formed the band while still in high school. The Sun is in its own sign in Leo as the Moon is in its own sign in Cancer. This is the natural ego and the natural heart. The fact of his parents’ religious affiliations could seem iconic when viewed in this light.
Yauch was involved in the production end of BB music and videos as well as independent projects of his own. Taking charge of his creative musical endeavors aptly reflects his Sun square Neptune as well as his Cancer Venus-Mars trine Saturn (a hard worker, responsible). His cardinal Mars was no doubt softened by its conjunction to Venus which adds charm in getting one’s way. Saturn here can signify staying power and integrity, acting in ways that command respect. Cardinal Moon trine Neptune is also someone who can make music, partially because they can FEEL music.
The crisp, staccato manner of rap makes it the perfect genre for Yauch’s Virgo Mercury sandwiched between Uranus and Pluto, measured, accurate, powerful and electric. His voice and words came right out of nowhere. They were wry, cutting (sextile Mars) and carried a punch. Clearly he will be missed by many.
Thank you so much for this, Satori <3 We listen to them all the time, too. It's such a huge loss.
losing Don Cornelius made me think and remember. this actually feels personal in a way I wouldn’t expect with a celebrity. ::sigh::
RIP Adam Yauch. <3
Very saddened by the news, very young!
Me, too, satori. Shows how relatable he really was, for so many. This will take a long time to adjust to. What a sad loss.
he’s survived by a wife and daughter too. :/ so sad.
OMG!!!! I hadn’t heard!!!! I almost feel like hyperventilating!!!!! I have sooo much respect for them musically and creatively. I also feel a sort of kinship with their “weirdness”, kind of similar to Outkast, although the Beasties were there much sooner and so ahead of their time. I was hoping to see them live at the Bowl in LA but I guess that will never happen now:-(
“Cuz she’s the cheese and I’m the macaroni” ;+)
RIP Adam
I just turned 47, so this hit me where I live. :/
I was so impressed at the way that MCA and the rest of the Boys continued to evolve. After Licensed to Ill blew up, lots of musicians would have stuck with the same approach as that breakthrough record.
Your overview of his chart helps make clear how much MCA contributed to the Beasties’ growth. He had not only a strong Sun and a strong Moon, but also a strong Mercury (in Virgo). Those boys and girls never stop writing, working, learning …
RIP Adam (and condolences to his family).
Saturn widely opposed his Mercury also.
I was so saddened by the news today. I hadn’t even known he had cancer.
Their music has touched millions!
One of my favorite movie screnes of all times is a mother-son dance in Diary of a Wimpy Kit to Intergalactic.
It’s very sad indeed, but at least he left us with this creations and he’ll be greatly remembered.
It’s feels like with first micheal Jackson, then Whitney and now Adam that I am losing a piece of my history it hurts you know in a really weird way it just hurts …
Ditto, Satori. This one’s personal for me too, in a way most celebrity deaths aren’t. I cried a lot.
For those just finding out about his cancer, you might want to watch the announcement he put up on YouTube a few years back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7CH3M7cECI
So many of us thought he was going to make it through this. It’s such a huge loss.
someone said something that made it gel for me. I “get” and appreciate Nirvana and whatever (but that wasn’t personal to me); this is my Kurt Cobain.
So Sad 🙁 Thank you for this Satori. <3
<3
i heard about this late last night…i was stunned. the beasties were one of the soundtracks to my teenage years. one of a kind and still able to make good music year after year – a near impossible feat in rap music. interesting to know we shared the same sun and merc sign.
RIP yauch.
A new york state of mine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evA-R9OS-Vo&feature=share
the world lost a piece of its heart.
If I made a list of the top 20 most influential albums of my life, Licensed to Ill would probably be on it.
RIP Adam Yauch
Wow. I’m not sure if I can believe that this was over 4 years ago.
right??
I am just sort of the between Adam and Kurt generation of the way I feel even though Cobain and I have a couple more generational planets in common, I am going to have to be honest and say that I was just a bit of an outsider to “generation x” peers- my father’s Pluto in Cancer WWII Vet and pre-boomer generation of earliest Pluto Leo mother who was a barmaid and on The Pull, not a bra burning protester. She is pro-choice yet super Catholic. I was raised by centaurs (both of my parents Sagittarius) who were ahead of the time in human rights (my dad was a union rep, and we shared our Sunday dinner with a wide range of people, among them Rev. Jesse Jackson and his friend Gordon, and some neighbor asked me if I had people “like that” over often and I was 4 years old and I thought she was referring to the fact that Gordon was “wearing a wheelchair ” as my Poland born grandmother said of people, like glasses. And I told her that my Aunt is like that too. But not like the other one. Haha. I forgot about that till now. I meant that she wore a wheelchair and didn’t work for the Democratic party or wasn’t a priest because she was a lady and married to Uncle Bernie.. And I am not sure what my own family thought when it got around the neighborhood that I have a Sicilian aunt with polio who is a black man and a Reverend. Cobain reflected the legacy of the parents of my friends, the same who maybe went to Vietnam bit more likely just avoided narrowly or protested theoretically and in reality they were both remarried and sometimes redivorced by the time that we were in highschool and there were TWO casualties in the same reality and a grandparent who were born after my dad was the real person who was a constant in my friends’ lives. I’m thinking of 4 or 5 people who were close friends who are not even sure where their own father was in much of life. And that was the part of my generation with the parents who didn’t go all Greed is Good and remarry and repurpose on Pluto in Scorpio who are now totally forgetting about the shit that they have sowed and preaching to the millennial generation of the 2nd and 3rd marriage they have NOT left that THEY are not even trying. My parents didn’t say much. But I was so much more aware of what they were doing or not doing….And I am just realizing NOW that gift.
Satiric, I have missed your earthy first brand of Pisces!
Typo typo….?