Credit: Dangerous Minds / RUN DMC / Jam Master Jay

Jam Master Jay was both the spine and sound of hip-hop royalty Run-DMC, whose role, behind-the-scenes, was much more significant than just being a DJ.

The icon, real name Jason Mizell, was a consummate musician. One who took up guitar, bass, drums, and even trumpet long before he took up the Technics turntable. By the time he was a fully fledged member of Run-DMC, Mizell wasn’t just providing the record scratches and samples. He was also playing the instruments on their records when they couldn’t find a sample for something. He may not have been the face of the band like his bandmates, but Mizell was of equal importance.

When Jay was shot and killed at his Queens music studio on October 30th, 2002, DMC and Run comprehensively called time on the band, which was the only thing to do.

Since then, the only activity the NYC legends have undertaken has been a few nascent reunion concerts. Absolutely no new material has threatened to surface in the 24 years since his death, and it’s hard to foresee that ever changing in the future. After all, Run and DMC’s voices were only a part of the band’s sound; those stadium-sized drums and guitars were all Jay, which are irreplaceable.

So, what exactly happened to Jay, and why did it take so long for justice to occur? A friend of Jay’s had been in the studio when it happened. 25-year-old Uriel Rincorn was shot in the ankle during the incident and survived, but beyond that, there were no leads. This was also far from a random event. It had the feel of a gangland assassination, but as far as anyone knew, there would be no obvious reason to target Jam Master Jay.

This was until an astonishing piece of investigative journalism from Frank Owen was published in Playboy. His piece, titled ‘The Last Days of Jam Master Jay’, told an astonishing story explaining how, in the late 1990s, times were incredibly tough for Run-DMC and with mounting debts, Jay had turned to cocaine dealing to get himself out of a tight financial spot. According to Owen’s sources, Jay had obtained about $250,000 of cocaine from a notorious dealer and was late with his payments.

The shooting had then happened as vengeance for those late payments.

After the article was published, a federal investigation began trying to find the people responsible for Jay’s murder, with the name of his childhood friend, Ronald Washington, coming up as a key suspect. However, it wasn’t until 2020 that the investigation picked up any steam. Evidence came to light that Washington, Jay and his own godson, Karl Jordan Jr, had been involved in the initial deal to acquire the drugs. However, the supplier got cold feet when Washington, a known crook, got involved.

Jay subsequently cut Washington and Jordan out of the trade, yet still tried to push ahead with the deal. When he was late on his payments, the supplier contacted Washington, and Jordan paid for them to put a hit on the famed DJ. Who was, I can’t stress this enough, the former’s childhood best friend and the latter’s godfather. They took the money and put out on the hit.

Eventually, on February 27th, 2024, both men were convicted on charges of murder while engaged in a narcotics trafficking conspiracy and firearm-related murder.

The most haunting part of all this to me is that Jay grew up surrounded by peers of his who were indulging in petty crime and burglary. Jay was always the one who would talk sense into his friends and discourage them from committing crime. Behaviour that he apparently continued well into adulthood.

Desperation, however, has a habit of making hypocrites of us all.