Not the biggest fan of the Beastie Boys. In fact, it kinda annoys me when I hear their songs on Alternative radio. I still love 'You Gotta Fight For Your Right to Party' though.
Putting that aside, Adam Yauch seemed like a very charismatic soul and a nice fella. I admire his activism for Human Rights, in particular towards the liberation of Tibet. It's incredibly sad that he's gone at such a young age.
The funny thing is that the Beastie Boys were for me always a hardcore punk band. I was seriously shocked after I realised (in the late 90's) that they are famous for their hip hop stuff :-) Kids at school in the early 90's looked surprised when I claimed my favourite B-Boys songs are Egg Raid On Mojo and Riot Fight, they had no clue what I'm talking about :-)
What's even more interesting that as a young group turning from punk to hip hop, they decided to employ an unknown DJ to incorporate into their live act. It went pretty good, because in a couple of years they had released their first full length smash "Licensed To Ill".
That unknown DJ was Rick Rubin.