NEW YORK (REUTERS)–DJ Jam Master Jay, a member of the groundbreaking hip-hop group Run-DMC, was shot and killed Wednesday in a recording studio in the New York borough of Queens, a spokesman for the group said, as violence struck again at the heart of rap stardom.
DJ Jam Master Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell, was one of two men gunned down inside the studio at 7:30 p.m., group representative Dave Goodsen said in a statement posted on Run-DMC’s official website.
A New York City Police Department report said that Mizell, 37, died of a gunshot wound to the head. It said that he died on the scene and that another man, Urieco Rincon, 25, was shot in the leg and taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens.
Police said no arrests had been made and that authorities were investigating the shooting.
A spokeswoman for Mary Immaculate Hospital said one man had been brought in as a result of the incident, but that it was not Mizell. She had no further information.
Mizell, along with Run (Joseph Simmons), and D.M.C. (Darryl McDaniels), was part of the pioneering hip-hop group Run-DMC, credited with being the first rap artists to cross into mainstream popularity and the first hip-hop group to have a gold (1984’s Run-DMC), platinum (1985’s King of Rock), and multi-platinum (1986’s Raising Hell) album.
The group’s popularity had been waning in recent years but retained a place in the pantheon of rap music with a number of other milestones like the first hip-hop group with a Rolling Stone Magazine cover and the first to have a video played on MTV.
Mizell is the latest of hip-hop’s top stars to die in violence, after Tupac Shakur, who was gunned down in September 1996 in Las Vegas, and The Notorious BIG (Christoper Wallace), who was shot and killed in Los Angeles in March 1997.
“If you love this hip-hop thing like I love this hip-hop thing, it’s a sad day,” MTV.com quoted rap DJ, Mr. Cee, as saying on Funk Master Flex’s hip-hop radio show on Wednesday. “This has to stop, not just in hip-hop, but all over. This violence is just crazy. It’s unreal.”
MTV said Run-DMC recently finished touring with Kid Rock and Aerosmith, and was scheduled to perform Oct. 31 in half-time festivities at a Washington Wizards basketball home game.
According to their official website, which is running a banner across the home page saying, “Whose House? Jay’s House. Rest in Peace Jam Master,” Mizell, Simmons and McDaniels grew up in solid, middle-class families in Hollis, Queens.
They began performing together in the early 1980s as Orange Crush, but in 1982 changed their name to Run-DMC. Their first national hit came in 1983, when they released the single “It’s Like That” whose flip side, the minimalist beat “Sucker MC’s,” is considered by many to be the first hard-core rap song.
Under the tutelage of Simmons’ older brother, rap impresario Russell Simmons of Def Jam records, the group, dressed in their signature unlaced Adidas sneakers and baggy black jeans, broke into mainstream popularity. The group members’ garb swiftly became the uniform of urban kids around the country.
In 1986, Run-DMC became a household name in the United States with its video cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” that some say helped revive the rock group’s flagging career.
Run-DMC’s 1988 “Tougher than Leather” and 1990’s “Back from Hell” did not enjoy the commercial success of the earlier albums, however. They released “Down with the King” in 1993 and “Crown Royal” in 2001.
