Beastie Boys musician Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz has paid tribute to his late bandmate Adam Yauch following his death.

The 45-year-old star praised the hip-hop group's fans, family and friends for all the "love and support" they have shown to the 47-year-old rapper, also known as MCA, since he passed away on Friday after battling cancer in his parotid gland and a lymph node since 2009.

"as you can imagine, s**t is just fkd up right now. but i wanna say thank you to all our friends and family (which are kinda one in the same) for all the love and support. i'm glad to know that all the love that Yauch has put out into the world is coming right back at him. thank you. (sic)" Ad-Rock wrote in a post on the band's blog last night.

A number of stars have paid tribute to MCA - who founded the group with Kate Schellenbach, John Berry, and Michael Diamond (Mike D) in 1979 with Berry leaving in 1983 to be replaced by Ad-Rock - including Madonna, who took to her Facebook page to express her sadness about his passing: "The Beastie Boys were one of a kind! And so was Adam! They were all an important part of my musical history and integral to the musical revolution that was happening at the time. I'm very sad to hear about Adam's passing. God bless him and his family."