It is with great sadness that Beastie Boys member and co founder Adam Yaunch has passed away after a long battle with stomach cancer. The rapper whos on stage name is MCA had been battling with the illness since his diagnosis in 2009.

The official statement on the Beastie Boys website reads”It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation that produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer, he was 47 years old.”

Yaunch was unable to sit in on their recent induction into rock and rolls hall of fame in April and the trio were unable to appear in any music videos for Hot Sauce Committee PT.2

Yaunch will be leaving a legacy of work behind as a founder of the Milarepa Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness and activism regarding the injustices perpetrated on native Tibetans by Chinese occupational government and military forces. In 1996, Milarepa produced the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, which was attended by 100,000 people, making it the biggest benefit concert on U.S. soil since 1985’s Live Aid. The Tibetan Freedom Concert series would continue to stage some of the most significant benefit shows in the world for nearly a decade following in New York City, Washington DC, Tokyo, Sydney, Amsterdam, Taipei and other cities.

RIP