Jason William Mizell (January 21, 1965 – October 30, 2002), also known as Jam-Master Jay and Jay Gambulos, was a founder and the DJ of hip hop group Run-D.M.C..
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.) After achieving relative prominence, Jason was known to use the alias Jay Gambulos so as to avoid unwanted attention from the public. Jason is also related to the Mizell Brothers, a popular production team for Gary Bartz, Johnny "Hammond" Smith, and others.
In the 1990s, Mizell survived a bad car accident and a gunshot wound.
On October 30, 2002, 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 and survived.
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 Mizell was murdered for defying the blacklist of 50 Cent."
In April 2007, federal prosecutors named Ronald "Tenad" Washington as an accomplice in the murder of Mizell. Washington also is a suspect in the fatal shooting of Randy Walker in 1995, a close associate of the late rapper Tupac Shakur. For his part, Washington “pointed his gun at those present in the studio, ordered them to get on the ground and provided cover for his associate to shoot and kill Jason Mizell,” prosecutors said in court papers.
Mizell is survived by his wife Terri and three children. He is buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. His favorite long brown leather trench coat was given to his best friends, Rev Run and DMC. Jam Master Jay was 37 when he died.
