The Murder Of Jam Master Jay

He created an entire genre of music. He was called the John Lennon of Rap. And like Lennon he was taken down by a gunman's bullet. He was a father, a husband, and a Legend in his own time. Jam Master Jay was born Jason Mizel in Queens New York in 1965. He first achieved fame in 1986 when he manned the turntables of Run DMC's tune titled "Walk This Way", which was a huge crossover hit. After the rise of Run DMC, Jay became a record producer of Rap who was revered bt all. He always stayed very close to his roots. He wasn't one of these guys who has big success and then leaves the neighborhood and you never see him again, he was a man of the people right there in the mix. He was also one of the strongest voices against violence in the rap culture. He was seen as a peacemaker to most but apparently not to all. On the night of October 30th 2002, Jay was in his recording studio with a couple of friends. Then there was knock on the door and two gunman burst in. Both were armed with handguns.

One of them ordered everyone to the floor, the other shot Jay in the head with a 40 caliber pistol. The music pioneer and Legend, who was 37 year old at the time, died instantly, murdered inexplicably in cold blood. 2300 people came out for Jam Master Jay's funeral. Ice Cube says it hurt so much because somebody knew who he was and knew how much he meant to everybody and still did him that way and that heroes are not exempt from our sickness with violence. Despite all the attention in the weeks after the murder, the investigation stalled. People who there on the night of Jam Master Jay's murder don't want to talk about it for whatever reason whether it be fear of retaliation or code of the street. There is very little protection for witnesses and people know that. In this particular case you need eyewitness cooperation to be able to present a case to the grand Jury and without it the police are stuck with yet another unsolved murder on their hands. To date. police have made no arrests.