MCA, Beastie Boy and all round legend, has revealed that he has been diagnosed with cancer of the preaortic gland and lymph node. He broke the news via a video message featuring himself (real name Adam Yauch) and fellow Beastie Ad Rock. Yauch has described the condition as "treatable", and overall seems fairly chipper in the kind of way that only a Beastie Boy could be when faced with such news.

Said MCA: "About two months ago I started feeling a lump in my throat, like you feel if you have swollen glands or if you have a cold," the rapper explained in the video. "I didn't think it was anything. Then when we were in Europe recently doing promotion I started to think I should talk to my doctor. So I called my doctor when I got back, about two weeks ago.

"He sent a specialist, they did tests and I have a form of cancer in a gland that's over here (points to his left cheek). It's in a gland called the preaortic gland and it's also in the lymph node in that area.

"I'm going to have to have surgery, probably next week (beginning July 27), and then after that have some radiation done in that localised area."

Ok, the quotes above don't actually sound particularly chipper, but he continued in a much more optimistic vein:

"The good news is that they did scans of my whole body and it's only localised in this one area," he said. "It's not in a place that affects my voice, so that's nice. That's convenient.

"It's a bit of a setback, it's a pain in the ass, but it's treatable, in most cases they're able to completely get rid of it, people don't have continuing problems with it...if they've caught it early. That's the good news."

Yauch also apologised for the inevitable cancellation of upcoming shows, as well as the delay in the release of the new Beasties' LP Hot Sauce Committee, which was due to be released on September 15th. Finally, Ad Rock claimed that he had no idea that Yauch was planning to announce the news via video:

"I'd also like to say for the record Adam didn't tell me why I was coming down here," he said. "I was just on the couch watching TV. This is a fake beard and look."

Ah, bless MCA and bless those Beasties. Even though we didn't hold out huge hope for their new album, it's impossible not to get at least a bit excited about the return of a band with a back catalogue as full of classics. Get well soon..