[M.C. Guevera]

It's been a week and I still can't believe it. But the tributes continue to pour in. Amazing.

I know that the world is still turning, life goes on, and there's other things to worry about. I even found myself wrapped up in the N.C. gay marriage ban controversy this week. First thing I thought about besides Yauch's death.

Still, there's that sadness in the air that just won't go away.

I will say, that the amount of love and respect that the Beastie Boys are getting continues to blow my mind. Maybe I just didn't pay attention, but I can't remember the last time a celebrity death got this much outpouring of sorrow and grief other than Michael Jackson's death. It's been repeated everywhere: This death hits hard.

I sometimes wondered if we were the last of a dying breed. In a world where more kids know who Souljaboytellem is than MCA. In a world where a song whose chorus is just the word "Ass" repeated ad nauseum is played more than "Make Some Noise". In a world where "Sabotage" gets less votes than a typical Lil' Wayne "bitches and hoez" music video (this really did happen), I worried if the Beastie Boys would fade further into obscurity with each passing generation.

Well, now, I don't worry about that. The tweets, the blog posts, the mixes, the covers...they all say that the Beastie Boys affected more lives than even we realized. That these three skinny punks from New York meant more to people than even *they* realized. It's heartwarming but bittersweet that it had to take a death for this love to finally come out. People are genuinely depressed about this. They aren't joking. No matter who they are, they are sad.

If this week has taught me anything, it's that the Beastie Boys are one of the most universally adored bands to ever exist. Right up there with The Beatles and Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. Yeah, I went there. They're most certainly in the Top 10. Top 5 even. They get that "Fuck Yeah!" reaction 9 times out of 10. That's hard to do.