Run DMC disc jockey shot to death

Arts Now

New York - Jam Master Jay, the disc jockey of the groundbreaking rap trio Run DMC, was shot to death Wednesday night in a New York recording studio. He was 37.

Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell, teamed up with singers Joseph Simmons (Run) and Darryl McDaniels (DMC) in the early 1980s. While they alternately shouted and sang, Mizell accompanied them with a beat created by playing snippets from vinyl records.

Unlike other early rappers who sang over electronic beats, Run DMC set their lyrics to samples from popular rock songs. Their biggest hit, a 1986 remake of the Aerosmith classic Walk this Way , introduced the new form of black urban music to a much larger (and largely white) middle-class audience.

Raising Hell , the record that included Walk This Way , sold more than three million copies, becoming the first rap album to go multiplatinum. The group's self-titled debut album in 1984 was the first rap album to go gold.

Run DMC never had another hit as big as Walk this Way , but the group continued to record and perform and their influence is still widely acknowledged by the next generation of rap stars.

Unlike many of their peers, Run DMC did not use their music to glorify the violence of urban life in America. Instead, they spoke in favour of education and clean living.