Jam Master J murdered?

I also like Run DMC, but I seem to remember they did record one "gangsta rap" type record in the early '90s. Their sales were way down and they did the same thing MC Hammer eventually did by turning to the genre for sales and it failed miserably. There was, however, one outstanding track on that album called The Avenue.

 

They tried very hard to become hip again. You'll notice that Gangsta Rap was only one type of rap music, and right now, the only popular rap is one that combines R&B with hip-hop. Make your female vocalist sound like Minny Mouse, drop the beat from an 808 sound, don't forget the rap in the middle of the song, drive the chorus at the end.

Run DMC made the 808 a very important sound in hip hop.

 

Scott, what's an 808 sound?? I'm not familiar at all.

 

Tullman,

Be informed that Run D-M-C was NOT even CLOSE to gangsta rap. Their stuff was clean and safe a milk. They have an clean image.

A little education on rap may help here.

 

Look guys, according to the link, we don't know who shot him, or why. It could have been someone drunk, or a jilted girlfrend, an robbery, anything. Security in recording studios is a big problem, you know.

Why assume that it was gangsta stuff JUST because he was in the rap world?

This thread could get real ugly fast. I was also hoping another thread about RAP wouldn't come anytime soon right after that last bruhaha.

 

I'm with Grant on this issue, as always.

Shocking tragedy. I'd say people should post their condolences here, otherwise you're just thread-crapping. Save it for your own thread.

 

[lets just move on -- HZ]

I'd just like to use this opportunity to post my condolences to Jam Master J's family and friends, and thanks for the music.

 

It's been almost twenty years since the first RUN-DMC record. At the time, they were students at ST. John's University.

 

On CNN, they just announced that fans of hip-hop are calling RUN D-M-C the "Beatles" of the rap world. Jam Master J was indeed a pioneer of the "scratching" style of music. He was referred to as being a grandfather of the community.

At this time, there are still no leads in the case.

 

Folks, lets drop the "discussion" about gangsta rap and thread crapping and move on.

 

By LARRY McSHANE

Oct. 31, 2002 | NEW YORK (AP) -- As one of the forefathers of rap, with a history of social activism, Run-DMC's Jam Master Jay was an unlikely target for the kind of violence that killed rappers Tupac Shakur or the Notorious B.I.G.

He was married with three kids, and a fixture in the Queens neighborhood where he grew up. Yet authorities were searching Thursday for the gunman who killed 37-year-old disc jockey with a gunshot to the head inside his recording studio.

"Jam Master Jay was a longtime family man and one of the founders of the group that knocked down all the doors for hip-hop, and a dear friend of mine," said Russell Simmons, the hip-hop impresario whose brother Joe was Jay's bandmate.

"I loved him," said a devastated Simmons. "I will miss him. He is irreplaceable."

Chuck D, frontman for rappers Public Enemy, agreed with that sentiment.

"You draw the comparison to when John Lennon was shot," he said. "It's an enormous loss to the genre."

The DJ -- whose real name was Jason Mizell -- was the man behind the music, working the turntables as Joe "Run" Simmons and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels rapped over his hard rock beats on hits like "Rock Box," "King of Rock" and their Top 40 cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way."

He spun and scratched records on twin turntables simultaneously, creating a new style and sound that was copied by endless disc jockeys. "If Grandmaster Flash was the first famous DJ, Jay had to be the second," said Andre Harrell, a Mizell contemporary who now heads Nu America Music.

While breaking new ground, Run-DMC made hip-hop commercially viable, becoming a platinum-selling act that earned a 1987 Grammy nomination. Run-DMC created opportunities for untold rappers to follow, expanding their work into movies and a line of clothing.

"It's a terrible loss," said Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys, who joined Run-DMC on a national tour in the mid-1980s. "If Jam Master Jay and Run-DMC hadn't looked out for us way back when, I don't know where we'd be now."

Sean "P. Diddy" Combs called Mizell "a pioneer. He led the way for a whole new genre of talent. ... He was a great men who will be deeply missed."

Run-DMC, three friends who hailed from the Hollis section of Queens, was always above the thuggishness that later came to dominate hip-hop. "It's not like we just have scrambled brains and gold chains," McDaniels once told The Associated Press.

They were the only rap act at Live Aid, the fund-raising concert for African famine victims, and they joined Little Steven Van Zandt for the anti-apartheid anthem, "Sun City." The also contributed the track "Christmas in Hollis" to the Special Olympics project, "A Very Special Christmas."

Run-DMC did anti-drug concerts, established scholarships and set up voter registration booths at its live shows.

"They represented everything good and positive about hip-hop," remembered Russell Simmons.

The band achieved a level of fame previously unheard of for rappers. Their list of firsts is staggering: first rappers with a gold album, first with a platinum album, first on American Bandstand, first on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Their videos became MTV staples. And though their record sales had waned in recent years, they remained a formidable concert draw: the group recently completed a tour with Aerosmith and Kid Rock.

"They're the Rolling Stones of rap," Ice Cube said recently.

In a 1987 interview with The Associated Press, the trio sipped tea in a Manhattan hotel room. The band revealed, giggling, why they decided to bring Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler in for their remake of "Walk This Way": because none of them knew the lyrics.

Mizell recalled scratching the song for Tyler, repeating guitarist Joe Perry's riff without ever getting to the vocals — evidence of their fascination with beats over lyrics.

In Queens, fans had created an impromptu memorial to Mizell outside his recording studio, just a short distance from the neighborhood where he grew up.

Some in the crowd recalled how Mizell, McDaniel and Joe Simmons always appeared at the annual "Hollis Day" picnic. A sign hung on a fence read, "R.I.P. Jam Master Jay: Thank you for always representing us the right way."

"We've lost a legend," said fan Terrence Chadwick, 37, standing outside the studio. "Jam Master Jay was truly a legend to this community."

 

Interesting that my post was deleted but this is still here.

 

????

 

My post was removed too, but this is still here??? Either this is showing silent agreement with Tullman's views, or a poor attempt to force the moderators to ban discussion of rap just because a few people don't like it.

Now, i'm sorry if I just made the Gorts angry, but i'm obviously not the only one who feels this way!

 

Locking Thread.