But you didn't "move on." And apparently you care, seeing as how you took the time to post to a thread about a subject you don't care about.
Posted on 10/30/2002 9:23:35 PM PST by motexva
NEW YORK - Jam Master Jay, part of the pioneering rap trio Run DMC, was shot and killed, the group's publicist said.
Publicist Tracy Miller confirmed the death of the 37-year-old rapper, whose real name was Jason Mizell.
A legal source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the rapper was shot in the head Wednesday at a recording studio in the New York City borough of Queens. A second person was shot in the ankle and the shooter was at large, the source said.
Run DMC is widely credited with helping bring hip-hop into music's mainstream, including the group's smash collaboration with Aerosmith (news - web sites) on the 1980s standard "Walk This Way."
"We always knew rap was for everyone," Mizell said in a 2001 interview with MTV. "Anyone could rap over all kinds of music."
"It wasn't the soulful R&B of the '70s and '80s," he said of the group's early work. "So we didn't want to be like the soft R&B. We wanted to go hardcore, so we put the rock-and-roll on our rap."
Mizell served as the group's disc jockey, providing background for singers Joseph Simmons, better known as DJ Run, and Darryl McDaniels, better known as DMC.
Mizell was married and had three children, Miller said.
"He was a great producer, a hard worker," Miller told The Associated Press. "He's a family man."
Dozens of fans gathered on the outskirts of the crime scene in Queens, where the members of Run DMC grew up.
"They're the best. They're the pioneers in hip-hop," said fan Arlene Clark, 39.
Another fan who lives nearby, Leslie Bell, 33, said the members of Run DMC often let local musicians record for free at their studio.
"That was their decision, to stay here and give back to the community," Bell said. "He is one great man. The good always die young. He's the good guy."
The trio had planned to perform in Washington, D.C., on Thursday at a Washington Wizards basketball game. Mizell had performed on Tuesday in Alabama, Miller said.
The trio released a greatest-hits album earlier this year. In 2001, the rappers produced "Crown Royal," breaking an eight-year silence.
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.
The rivalry is based on the gangland origins of different rap groups and has ties to the LA Ramparts police scandal. Many believe that both sides have spread money around to insure themselves from prosecution for their involvement in these crimes.
Back in the 80's I thought that rap would fade away like a bad fart, but it seems to have taken over most of music market.
All I can say is that I'm glad the whole Vanilla Ice thing is done and over with. My 13 year old doesn't understand why every time someone my age hears the name Vanilla Ice, we snicker shake our heads. Guess you would have had to have been old enough to remember how rediculous that was.
But you didn't "move on." And apparently you care, seeing as how you took the time to post to a thread about a subject you don't care about.
What's "good?" Please explain.
No thanks. A man has been murdered. The circumstances of his life and his murder suggest that he is the latest casualty in a multiyear war between east and west coast rap record producers, who began their careers as drug dealers and worse. The record companies are believed to be laundering blood money from the crack cocaine trade and other illicit activities, and these organizations are likely more powerful than the Cosa Nostra ever was.
There are many allegations of corruption at the LAPD and NYPD, and at the prosecutorial level. The same names keep coming up in the investigations of the deaths of Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G. and a host of other serious crimes committed in the LA and NY area.
This is likely not a simple matter as you allege. These incidents involve possible corruption at the highest levels of law enforcement. Prominent American entertainers are being murdered, and this week one of the men who has been implicated in these crimes is being feted at a million dollar birthday by an oil sheik. God knows what will go on at these festivities.
Maybe you don't care about murderers going unpunished, and drug money poisoning the well of American pop music. Maybe you don't care about drug money corrupting law enforcement and prosecutions. Maybe you don't care about good men and women on the LAPD getting their names dragged through the mud and being accused of murder, having their lives and careers ruined. I do and I suspect many others on this site do as well.
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