Mizell served as the platinum-selling group's disc jockey,
providing background for singers Joseph Simmons, better known as Run, and Darryl
McDaniels, better known as DMC.
The group is widely credited with helping bring hip-hop into music's mainstream, including
the group's smash collaboration with Aerosmith on the 1980s standard ``Walk This Way'' and
hits like ``My Adidas'' and ``It's Tricky.''
``We always knew rap was for everyone,'' Mizell said in a 2001 interview with MTV.
``Anyone could rap over all kinds of music.''
Mizell is the latest in a line of hip-hop artists to fall victim to violence. Rappers
Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur were murdered within seven months of each other in 1996
and 1997 - crimes that some believe were the result of an East Coast-West Coast rap war.
But Run DMC and their songs were never about violence. The group promoted education and
unity.
Chuck D, the founder of the hip-hop group Public Enemy,
blamed record companies and the advertising for perpetuating ``a climate of violence'' in
the rap industry. ``When it comes to us, we're disposable commodities,'' he said.
Doctor Dre, a New York radio station DJ who had been friends with Mizell since the
mid-1980s, said, ``This is not a person who went out looking for trouble. ... He's known
as a person that builds, that creates and is trying to make the right things happen.''
Leslie Bell, 33, said the band members often let local musicians record for free at the
studio, and had remained in Queens to give back to the community.
``He is one great man,'' said Bell. ``As they say, the good always die young.''
What has to be done in order
to stop this type of violence on our communities?
When did it become "cool" to take another's life?
Is it the music, TV, movies?
Do we let the authorities, who have no vested interest in such matters, seek a
solution?
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NEW YORK (Oct. 31) - Jam Master Jay, a founding member of the
pioneering rap trio Run DMC, was shot and killed at his recording studio near the New York
neighborhood where he grew up, police said.
Two men were buzzed into the second-floor studio shortly before shots were fired inside
its lounge at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, police said. As of early Thursday, police had made
no arrests.
The 37-year-old disc jockey, whose real name was Jason Mizell, was shot once in the head
in the studio's lounge and died at the scene, said Detective Robert Price, a police
spokesman.
Urieco Rincon, 25, who was not a member of Run DMC, was shot in the leg, police said.
About five other people in the studio at the time were not hurt.
``Rest In Peace Jam Master,'' Run DMC's official Web site read early Thursday, underneath
a picture of Mizell.
2000 Interview in Real
Audio Click Now
(High
Speed Connection Required)
In 1986, the trio said they were outraged by the rise of fatal gang violence in the Los
Angeles area. They called for a day of peace between warring street gangs.
``This is the first town where you feel the gangs from the minute you step into town to
the time you leave,'' Mizell said at the time.
Mizell's friends and fans gathered near the studio, located above a restaurant and a
check-cashing business. The crowd included many people from the Hollis section of Queens,
where the members of Run DMC grew up.
``They're the best. They're the pioneers in hip hop,'' said Arlene Clark, 39, who grew up
in the same neighborhood. ``They took it to the highest level it could go.''
Publicist Tracy Miller said Mizell and McDaniels had planned to perform in Washington,
D.C., on Thursday at a Washington Wizards basketball game. Mizell had performed on Tuesday
in Alabama, she said.
Mizell was married and had three children, she said.
Run DMC released a greatest-hits album earlier this year. In 2001, the rappers produced
``Crown Royal,'' breaking an eight-year silence.
10/31/02 08:10 EST
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.
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