Adam Yauch's journey from Boys to monk

In July of 2009, Adam Yauch sat laughing in front of a recording console with fellow Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz. They had an important message for fans, but it wasn’t the usual high jinks for the Brooklyn rappers.

“I have something really heavy-duty to say,” Yauch said. “We’re going to have to cancel a bunch of our shows and push back our record release, because recently I started feeling this lump in my throat . . . ”

This was the first time fans heard that one of the most admired musicians in rock and hip-hop might be making his swan song. “I actually have a form of cancer that’s in a gland over here,” he said, tapping the left side of his neck. “It’s also in a lymph node right in that area.”

It was the kind of communication fans had come to expect from the rapper better known as MCA — direct, honest and humble.

He didn’t start out that way, however. Yauch came to prominence as a drunken lout when the Beastie Boys broke through in 1986, and left as an artist who had earned respect for his love of music, Buddhism and film when he died Friday morning.

“My first impression of the Beastie Boys — they were little punks, they were brats,” Bill Adler, publicist for Def Jam Records from 1984 to 1990, told MTV. “Adam struck me as the angriest [member] of the Beastie Boys. He really wasn’t a happy guy, and he didn’t mind expressing his unhappiness.”

The Beastie Boys’ first album, “License to Ill,” featured a landmark blend of rap and heavy-metal riffs. But the rhymes were the product of party animals who initially wanted to call the album “Don’t Be A Fa - - ot.” “Born and bred, Brooklyn, USA, they call me Adam Yauch, but I’m MCA,” he rapped on “No Sleep Til Brooklyn.” “Got limos, arena, TV shows, autograph pictures and classy hos.”

It was a typical Beasties rant, and the group’s live show echoed its rambunctious outlook.

“I remember we were touring in Europe and the stage had gotten really wet because they were throwing beer around all over the place,” Reverend Run of Run-DMC told Vibe. “So we are on the side watching the Beastie Boys’ show thinking, ‘Yo, somebody is going to bust their ass tonight.’ Sure enough, MCA slipped and flew about 20 feet in the air [laughs]. He came down real hard. We all thought he was severely hurt. We were like, ‘Yo, call the ambulance!’ But this motherf - - ka just gets up and keeps rapping!”

It didn’t take long, though, for Yauch, Mike Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) to change their tune. And change the rap game for the better.

In 1989, “Paul’s Boutique” reinvented sampling as an art form, and was so chock-a-block with clips from other records that the sheer density of its collective groove couldn’t be legally replicated today. Lyrically, the Boys expanded their scope, focusing on storytelling and pop references instead of overt party anthems.