RIP MCA

MCA died today of cancer. I knew he had cancer but I wasn't expecting it today.

I loved the Beastie Boys. They aren't my favorite band - that would be U2, of course - but I often said that if I had a band, my band would sound like the Beastie Boys. They are the soundtrack of my life. When Licensed to Ill came out, I was in 6th grade. "Fight for Your Right" was my national anthem. As they grew up (they're all about 10 years older than me), I grew up. Their music somehow got both goofier and more serious as they matured and as I matured with them. I loved their sense of humor, their willingness to be silly. Chuck D called the Beasties "the Jackie Robinsons of hip-hop," and I thank them for making it okay for white kids from East Moline, Illinois to listen to rap music. Three Jewish kids from New York are probably the greatest act in hip-hop history. Anything is possible, I guess.

MCA got into Buddhism in his adult life and was a major figure in making "Free Tibet" into, if not a mainstream idea, an idea with which the mainstream is familiar. When Ill Communication came out, with the song Bhodisattva Vow, he put his Buddhism into his music without restraint. I found it interesting (and still do) that the music media didn't treat this as something special or different. It seemed different than they way Christian artists get treated. It also, oddly, didn't seem preachy, for some reason.

There's nothing here that's not been said before/
But I put it down now so that I'll be sure/
To solidify my own views/
And I'll be glad if it helps anyone else out, too/


Perhaps it is a project of the major difference between the exclusivity of Christianity and the inclusivity (not a real word, I bet) of Buddhism that a Buddhist confession of faith does not sound like a demand, whereas the Christian creeds are both statements of faith and condemnations of any other faith. I can't see MCA rapping "and this is the Buddhist faith, that lest any man keep it whole and undefiled, he cannot be saved."

Remember that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return. RIP.

Now my name is MCA, I've got a license to kill/
I think you know what time it is, it's time to get ill/