Coldplay frontman Chris Martin sang a poignant tribute to Beastie Boy Adam Yauch. He turned the group’s raucous anthem “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)” into a soulful ballad.
Celebrities filled the Hollywood Bowl for the concert, the last of three at the iconic venue.
Yauch, one of the founders of the pioneering all-white hip-hop group died at 47 on Friday (May 4) after a long battle with cancer.
Yauch created the group with Mike Diamond and Adam Horovitz in the 1980s. They helped popularize, and legitimize, hip-hop and rap as a music genre, by proving it just wasn’t an African American thing.
The group’s breakout album, Licensed to Ill, was released in 1986. “Fight for Your Right” and “Brass Monkey,” were runaway hits and solidified the Beastie Boys as a super group.
They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April. Yauch, who was diagnosed with cancer of the salivary glands in 2009, was too ill to attend.
At the concert, Martin started out solo on the piano for the tribute before the band joined in. Check out the performance below: