Jam Master Jay dies

Why it matters

Jason Mizell, who recorded as Jam Master Jay with Run-DMC, was shot to death on October 30, 2002, in his recording studio in Jamaica, Queens. He was 37. He had been DJing with Run-DMC since they formed the group as Hollis teenagers in 1981. The murder was unsolved for two decades. It was, for most of that time, the most consequential unsolved killing in rap history. The case was finally tried in federal court in 2024, when two men (Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr.) were convicted of the murder, with a third (Jay Bryant) facing separate charges. Jay had been the steady center of Run-DMC. Without him there was no group; the surviving members did not record together as Run-DMC again. He had also been, quietly, one of the genre's most generous mentors. He signed 50 Cent to JMJ Records before Eminem and Dre did. He worked with Onyx, with Jayo Felony. He was 37. You do not get many DJs who matter the way Jay mattered. Run-DMC inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009, six and a half years after he was killed.