MCA

This past week, the music industry lost one of the founding fathers of rap/hip hop, Adam "MCA" Yauch of the Beastie Boys.

Back when they first came on the scene, well before my time, they were the first real white group to cement themselves in what had always previously been considered black music. They made it cool. They fit in. They really crossed boundaries and broke down walls. Even though I wasn't around to witness it first hand, I've read about it and appreciate what they did for the industry.

While I was a late bloomer for the Beastie Boys fan base, I LOVED them. Hello Nasty was one of the first CD's I ever owned and I just pumped it on repeat over and over and over. I knew I wasn't as cool as them, but damn, I tried hard and knew all the words. I thought I was a stud.

But lets fast forward a bit into the future, to high school when the film bug really bit me in the ass. Ever since I found my passion to be in images, film or photography, I've wanted to focus on music videos. What just happened to be one of the first videos to really grab me and never let go? The Beastie Boy's "Sabotage." It was directed by Spike Jonze and is considered one of the very first, if not the pioneering video that had nothing to do with the actual song. From start to finish, the video tells its own story, self contained and free of the lyrics in the song.

It really stuck with me.

This is why I fell in love with music videos. They gave me the ability to do whatever I wanted for four minutes (give or take). Enter my own dream world. Create my own reality.

And to be honest, I haven't stopped trying to obtain that dream ever since.

So I'd like to just say thank you to the Beastie Boys and spend a minute to remember what they gave me.