Jam Master Jay

Jason William Mizell (January 21, 1965–October 30, 2002), also known as Jam-Master Jay (or Jam Master Jay) and Jay Gambulos, was a founder and the DJ of Run-D.M.C., a hip-hop group based in the Queens borough of New York City.

Mizell was born in Brooklyn, New York and moved to Queens at the age of 10 with his family. He played bass and drums in several garage bands prior to joining Run-D.M.C.; on all of their albums from Raising Hell on, he played keyboards, bass, and live drums in addition to his turntable work. Mizell remained in his childhood neighborhood his entire life. He founded the Scratch DJ Academy in Manhattan for children interested in DJing.

In 1989, Mizell established the label Jam Master Jay Records, which scored a strong success in 1993 with the band Onyx. He also connected Chuck D with Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin. (Def Jam's other founder, Russell Simmons, is the brother of DJ Run.)

In the 1990s, Mizell suffered the effects of a bad car accident and a gunshot wound, which he survived. On October 30, 2002, however, he was shot and killed in a Merrick Boulevard recording studio in Queens, New York. The other person in the room, twenty-three-year-old Urieco Rincon, was shot in the ankle.

The New York Daily News reported that authorities have investigated whether Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, a convicted drug dealer and longtime friend of Murder Inc. heads Irv Gotti and Chris Gotti, targeted Mizell because the DJ defied an industry blacklist of rapper 50 Cent that was imposed because of "Ghetto Qur'an", a song 50 Cent wrote about McGriff's drug history. A 2003 affidavit says: "Law enforcement agents are investigating the possibility that [Jason] Mizell [a.k.a. Jam-Master Jay] was murdered for defying the blacklist of 50 Cent."

Federal prosecutors recently named Ronald "Tenad" Washington as an accomplice in the murder of Mizell. Mizell is survived by his wife Terri and three children. He is buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.