"UNDERGROUND 2 MAINSTREAM" Your NEW Source For Hip Hop Entertainment!!!

Posted: 21 Jan 2009 05:37 PM CST

Wednesday, January 21st 2009, 1:37 PM

Niles/AP

Hip hop pioneers RUN-DMC, from left, the late Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, and Joseph "DJ Run" Simmons.

Jason William Mizell would've turned 44 years old on Wednesday.

It is quite difficult to fathom that this month marks the seventh January since the icon known to the music world as Jam Master Jay was icily snuffed out in a recording studio on Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica.

It's yet another somber twenty-first day of the year; a day when family, friends and grateful fans commemorate a pioneer and his craft, and wonder if the assassin who pumped a .45-caliber bullet into Jay's head will ever see justice.

As the backbone of seminal trio Run-DMC, Jay revolutionized the role of the hip hop DJ.

He took a somewhat static position and turned it into a dynamic force of music. Jay was at once composer, choreographer, producer and band leader. Perhaps what resonated most with me was Jay's reverence for the medium.

He approached the turntable in the spirit of a musical instrument; his deft cuts on countless records were the perfect compliment to the unexampled rhyme styles of DJ Run and DMC.

They were records that changed everything.

I can vividly recall my older brother's legs dangling from the top bunk, his hands cradling a brown Fisher-Price single cassette player, constantly rewinding "Mary, Mary"just to listen to the wonderfully chaotic chorus driven by a frenetic guitar sample and Jay's melodic scratches.

Or the day my cousin handed me the landmark "Peter Piper/My Adidas"12-inch still wrapped in cellophane with the Nobody Beats the Wiz price tag affixed.

I first played "Peter Piper"on a home stereo turntable and quickly became obsessed with Jay's manipulation of Bob James' "Take Me to the Mardi Gras."

It was new and exciting. The compositions took a backseat to memorizing the most fleeting of cuts. The goal was to emulate Jay, to the extent that I lost sight of the gift he provided.

Sadly, it took a hit man's bullet on Oct. 30, 2002, to remind so many of us of the gift we had in Jay – a rare musician who consistently gave his talent and time to the culture.

On days such as this, we cling to memories and the belief that he lives on through the music. We hold on tightly to the image of a beaming DJ dressed in all black, with a fedora crown and pristine shell-toes.

We find comfort in his smile and irrepressible energy. And even if it's for a brief moment, we cease dwelling on the void and celebrate the presence.

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Posted: 21 Jan 2009 05:22 PM CST