Founding Beastie Boys member Adam "MCA" Yauch died Friday, May 4, according to published reports. The cause of death has not yet been revealed, but the musician and activist announced in 2009 that he was battling cancer. He was 47. Yauch was born in Brooklyn, New York on August 5, 1964, and was an only child. As a teenager, Yauch taught himself how to play the bass guitar. By 1978, at the age of 14, Yauch started a hard-core punk band called the Young Aborigines with three friends, including Michael "Mike D" Diamond. They played their first show on August 5, 1981, Yauch's 17th birthday.They changed their name to the Beastie Boys and by November 1982 released an EP, "Polly Wog Stew." By 1983, Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz joined the group, replacing original member, guitarist John Berry, who left to start another band. During the Beastie Boys' acceptance speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony in April of this year, Diamond ...