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| RIP to the one and only Jam Master |
Hip-hop pioneers Run-DMC are back on tour — their first without the backbeat of the group, Jam Master Jay, the victim of an unsolved slaying shrouded in mystery and lack of cooperation by witnesses.The platinum-selling band — which brought hip-hop to the mainstream with hits like “It’s Tricky,” “King of Rock” and a remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” — kicked off a tour last month even as the NYPD remains frustrated the 2002 execution-style rubout of the hip-hop star, whose real name was Jason Mizell, remains stalled 10 years later.
“We never really had a good lead,” the case’s head detective, Vincent Santangelo, told the Daily News. “Nobody would or nobody could tell us the who or what. We’re still looking for that person.”
Law enforcement sources, who at one time worked the case, said the people inside Mizell's 24/7 recording studio provided a play-by-play account of the Oct. 30, 2002 murder — but everyone stopped short in identifying the gunman or his sidekick.
The 37-year-old turntable wizard — who stayed anchored near the hardscrabble Hollis neighborhood where he grew up — arrived at the studio just hours before the killing.
After packing some equipment for a show in Philadelphia the next day, Jay got a bite to eat and took a seat on a couch at the rear of the studio. His pal, Uriel (Tony) Rincon, sat next to him and the pair began playing a video game.
Mizell placed a .45-caliber pistol on the arm rest.
A short time later, Mizell's assistant, Lydia High, entered the cramped studio to go over his itinerary. High's brother, Randy Allen - Mizell's longtime pal and business partner - soon came in with two friends, but they shut themselves in the control room at the front of the studio.
Everyone had been in the room for less than an hour when a man dressed in black, possibly wearing a hat, stepped in and gave Mizell a hug about 7:30 p.m. But after the short embrace, the man pulled out a .40-caliber handgun.
“Oh, s----,” was all a witness heard Mizell say before a shot rang out.
The bullet pierced Rincon’s left leg. Then, a second shot hit Mizell in the head, killing him before he hit the floor.
The killer and his accomplice, who was standing outside the door, both sprinted out of the two-story building and disappeared.
Santangelo, a 22-year vet, and his team spent years chasing scores of leads that sometimes brought him to cities across the country. No arrests have been made, but Santangelo believes that could change with the help of a good tipster — who can collect a $60,000 reward if there's a conviction.
But the sources, who spoke to the News last week, said they've already fingered one of Mizell's killers, but making an arrest has been stalled out by reluctant witnesses and bad press.
“We just never had enough to make it stick,” said one of the sources.
Investigators suspect career criminal Ronald Washington was either the lookout or the gunman. The hit was likely ordered after Mizell — who owed up to $500,000 to the IRS — refused to settle a decade-old drug debt with his old friend Curtis Scoon, the sources said.
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| Jam Master Jay being removed from the murder scene. |
High, who allegedly buzzed the killers into Mizell's studio, said Washington was one of the killers, but she later recanted.
“She changed her story three or four times after,” another source said.
Neither Washington nor Scoon, who now lives in Georgia, was ever charged. “As time goes by, he becomes less and less of a suspect,” said Scoon’s lawyer, Marvyn Kornberg. “He’s moved on with his life.”
The open case has left Mizell’s family shattered.
“The past 10 years has been really hard,” said the jam master’s brother, Marvin Thompson, 57. “There’s still so many unanswered questions. ... I pray that someone will step up and close this case and give us some peace.”
Thompson, too, is convinced that Washington was one of Mizell’s killers.
“It’s frustrating,” he said. “But the fact that he’s in jail ... I guess that’s some kind of closure.”Mizell’s 77-year-old mother, Connie Mizell-Perry, said she believes karma will eventually sneak up on the wanted men.
Speaking from her North Carolina home, she had one thing to say to the killers: “One of these days, you’re going to think you have it made and someone is going to tap you on the shoulder and say, ‘Gotcha!’”
For now, though, the focus is on Run DMC, the revived hip-hop trio, now a duo with no turntables behind their microphones. Partners Darryl (DMC) McDaniels and Joe (Run) Simmons soldier on.
“I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since Jay’s death,” McDaniels said in a statement to the Daily News. “That’s crazy. It seems like I just saw him yesterday.
“He impacted other people’s lives and that’s the Jay I loved and respected,” McDaniels added. “But spiritually, he’s always with me. His presence is felt as strongly today as it was the night he passed away.”
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| Timothy O'Tooles - 622 N. Fairbanks - Chicago, Il |
I can still remember where I was at on this day 10 years ago. I had a meeting with my attorney earlier in the day, and that night I had a date with my BFF Andrea Miller at a spot that I go to called Timothy O'Tooles. While we were enjoying a drink and a meal, my potna called me on my Nextel phone and told me that Jay had gotten killed......Dayummn!! Fortunately it didn't ruin our night, but it most definitely shock the hell outta me, and rattled me to the core.
I didn't know Jay personally, but I kinda feel that I did. I've always wanted to be the dude that played the background of situations. Hence the name; Joe Blacula. I studied all of his scratch patterns, and me and my friend Michael would perform routines from Run DMC's albums "King of Rock" and "Raising Hell" in his parents basement. Hell, Run DMC are the only reasons why I wear Adidas shirts and clothes to thus day. Jay was the perfect definition of a cat that played the background, but in all actuality, he's the one that ran the show! Jay would be the one who would get the crowd goin before Run and DMC came out on the stage. He would do these scratch routines, scratching Run's name, and the two emcees from Hollis, Queens would enter from opposite sides of the stage. Run would say "Now it's about that time for us to say", and then Jay would scratch "RUN DMC AND JAM MASTER JAY"!! Maaan i'm getting chills remembering when I saw that infamous scene in Krush Groove. That movie changed my life, but Jam Master Jay made me who I am!
