Adam Yauch

Adam Yauch was an American rapper, musician and filmmaker who formed the Beastie Boys out of the hardcore punk band Young Aborigines. Born in Brooklyn, New York City, he taught himself bass guitar in high school and later directed many of the group's music videos and their promotional photography, often credited as Nathanial Hörnblowér. The band's first album, Licensed to Ill, appeared on Def Jam Records. Yauch directed the concert film Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That! (2006) and the basketball documentary Gunnin' for That #1 Spot (2008), and he founded Oscilloscope Laboratories and began an independent film distribution company, which released Wendy and Lucy, The Messenger and We Need To Talk About Kevin. He produced Build a Nation, a Bad Brains comeback album, and in 2011 Bard College gave him its Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters. In 2012 the Beastie Boys received a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the year Yauch died.