Sen. Schumer mourns Beastie Boy on Twitter

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) tweeted condolences over the death of Adam Yauch Friday after the emcee, known by the stage name MCA, succumbed to cancer. He was 47.

Born and Bred in Brooklyn, U.S.A., they call him Adam Yauch, but he’s M.C.A. RIP Adam. #beastieboys #nosleeptillbrooklyn

— Chuck Schumer (@ChuckSchumer) May 4, 2012

The tweet riffs off lyrics from the Beastie Boys’s song “No Sleep ’till Brooklyn,” a single off their 1986 debut album. The popular rap group was founded by a group of friends attending Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn.

In 2009, Yauch announced he was being treated for cancer of his salivary gland, and had not performed since then. 

{mosads}Schumer, himself a Brooklyn native, has a history of referencing the borough’s influential hip-hop culture. Before his election to the Senate, Schumer represented New York’s 10th congressional district, which included Bed-Stuy, the neighborhood considered the center of New York’s hip-hop scene.

At a scholarship dinner in February, the New York Observer reported Schumer told attendees, “I have kept my promises to you that, while I have clout in Washington, I will do everything I can for our dear State of New York. So, when greedy landlords in the Bronx wanted to close the home on Sedgwick Avenue where L.L. Kool Herc invented hip hop and lots of hardworking people lived, we stopped them.”

That remark raised eyebrows, because Schumer apparently combined the stage names of D.J. Kool Herc — widely credited with bringing hip-hop to the Bronx — and L.L. Cool J, the rapper who now appears on “NCIS: Los Angeles.”