Latest / DISGRACELAND / Run-DMC (Pt. 2): Loyalty, Betrayal, and Who Shot Jay

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Run-DMC (Pt. 2): Loyalty, Betrayal, and Who Shot Jay · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. Hey Guys. So
0:05
Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty, we released an episode on Run
0:07
Speaker 1: DMC all about how the iconic trio took rap music
0:10
Speaker 1: to New Heights in the nineteen eighties and introduced suburban
0:14
Speaker 1: and mainstream America to a genre that had up to
0:16
Speaker 1: that point been made by and four New Yorkers. We
0:20
Speaker 1: ended that episode with a brief reference to the murder
0:23
Speaker 1: of Run DMC's jam Master Jay at a studio in
0:26
Speaker 1: two thousand and two. Now, at the time that that
0:29
Speaker 1: episode of ours was released, police had still not made
0:32
Speaker 1: any arrests eighteen years after the murder. Since Jay's killer
0:37
Speaker 1: still had not been brought to justice, and since there
0:39
Speaker 1: was so much speculation and rumors surrounding the case, we
0:42
Speaker 1: just didn't feel like it was right to get into
0:45
Speaker 1: all that until we had more information that was sourced
0:48
Speaker 1: and verified. Four years after we dropped that episode, However,
0:52
Speaker 1: in February of twenty twenty four, two men were convicted
0:55
Speaker 1: of the murder of jam Master J and we now
0:58
Speaker 1: have a much clearer picture of what happened. So, without
1:02
Speaker 1: further ado, here's our part two episode on Run DMC
1:05
Speaker 1: all about the secrets and lies that kept the murder
1:08
Speaker 1: of Jason Mizel aka JM Master J unsolved for over
1:12
Speaker 1: two decades. This is a story about loyalty, about street
1:31
Speaker 1: corners and queens, about sneakers and shelters, back room handshakes,
1:36
Speaker 1: and two old friends walking into a studio. This is
1:41
Speaker 1: the story of a pioneer who helped take a genre
1:44
Speaker 1: from the parks to the penthouses, and the price that
1:47
Speaker 1: he paid for doing that. This is not a story
1:50
Speaker 1: you've likely heard in full. It's not just about a
1:54
Speaker 1: DJ and a hip hop group who changed everything. It's
1:57
Speaker 1: about what happens when the money runs out, when the
2:01
Speaker 1: industry moves on, and when the streets come calling. This
2:04
Speaker 1: is a story, of course, about run DMC's jam Master J,
2:09
Speaker 1: a story that places him not just at the birth
2:11
Speaker 1: of hip hop, but at the center of a brutal conspiracy.
2:14
Speaker 1: It was fueled by desperation, betrayal, and cocaine. And this
2:19
Speaker 1: being a story about jam Master J means it's also
2:22
Speaker 1: a story about great music. Unlike that music I played
2:27
Speaker 1: for you at the top of the show that wasn't
2:29
Speaker 1: great music, and that was a preset loop from my melotron.
2:33
Speaker 1: Called with friends like These MK two. I played you
2:38
Speaker 1: that loop because I can't afford the rights to Dilemma
2:41
Speaker 1: by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland. And why would I play
2:45
Speaker 1: you that specific slice of breaking up a happy Home Cheese?
2:48
Speaker 1: Could I afford it? Because that was the number one
2:52
Speaker 1: song in America on October thirtieth, two thousand and two.
2:57
Speaker 1: Then that was the day that jam Master J was
2:59
Speaker 1: shot down and whole blood inside his own recording studio,
3:03
Speaker 1: a murder that rocked the hip hop community, that revealed
3:06
Speaker 1: a tangled web of criminals who conspired to silence one
3:09
Speaker 1: of rap's great innovators at the age of just thirty seven.
3:14
Speaker 1: On this episode, Side Hustles loaded thirty eight's real names,
3:19
Speaker 1: street names, and one of the most heartbreaking murders in
3:22
Speaker 1: hip hop history. Jam Master J. Run to MC. I'm
3:27
Speaker 1: Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. The disruptors, pioneers, the
3:59
Speaker 1: ones who go loud before the rest of us go right.
4:02
Speaker 1: They all leave their mark on the world, and in turn,
4:05
Speaker 1: the world never spends the same way again. But as
4:09
Speaker 1: the world turns and time passes, even pioneers can get
4:13
Speaker 1: lost in the rotation, and as the new guard shuffles on.
4:18
Speaker 1: It's all too easy for a one time disruptor to
4:20
Speaker 1: get left behind along with the dusty, yellowing pages of
4:24
Speaker 1: yesterday's papers. This was the situation that hip hop pioneers
4:29
Speaker 1: Run DMC found themselves in at the dawn of the
4:32
Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, when that G funk whistle blew in on
4:35
Speaker 1: the wind from the West Coast and the Death Row Blueprint.
4:38
Speaker 1: The sound of Doctor Dre's The Chronic made Run DMC
4:42
Speaker 1: stripped down boombobt once the authentic soundtrack to the streets
4:46
Speaker 1: of New York City, a more naive artifact of another
4:49
Speaker 1: time and place that was, in fact still just less
4:54
Speaker 1: than a decade old. For Jason Maizel aka JM Master J,
5:00
Speaker 1: that now familiar sting of cultural irrelevance hit him especially hard.
5:05
Speaker 1: J was the DJ in the group broughn on at
5:08
Speaker 1: the last minute after Joseph Simmons aka Run and Daryl
5:11
Speaker 1: McDaniels aka DMC had already begun recording their debut album,
5:17
Speaker 1: and contracts were written with this arrangement in mind, meaning
5:20
Speaker 1: that Jay didn't earn as much in royalties or songwriting
5:23
Speaker 1: credits as his bandmates did. I mean the group was
5:27
Speaker 1: called Run DMC. The names of the two mcs are
5:31
Speaker 1: in that name. Jay wasn't even featured in the cover
5:34
Speaker 1: photos for their first three records, even though the B
5:36
Speaker 1: boys style that Run in DMC represented was all j
5:41
Speaker 1: Those were his ideas that Joseph and Daryl were rapping about.
5:45
Speaker 1: And when the group hit the road on tour in
5:47
Speaker 1: the mid nineteen eighties, as their success began to really
5:50
Speaker 1: take off, according to Run DMC's tour manager at the time,
5:54
Speaker 1: j got a meager cut of each day's take, something
5:57
Speaker 1: like two or three hundred dollars out of the four
5:59
Speaker 1: or five grand that they were making nightly. In his defense,
6:03
Speaker 1: MC runs said that he promised Jay one third of
6:06
Speaker 1: their touring revenue and that their tour manager, Jeff Flood,
6:09
Speaker 1: Jay's former DJ partner, could not be trusted. Trust, as
6:13
Speaker 1: it turns out, is a pretty big part of this story.
6:17
Speaker 1: But I'm getting ahead of myself. My point here is
6:21
Speaker 1: that by the time the nineteen nineties rolled around, as
6:25
Speaker 1: Run DMC's popularity began to wane along with their record sales,
6:29
Speaker 1: Jason Mizel aka jam Maaster J had to pivot not
6:35
Speaker 1: to stay relevant musically but just to stay afloat, he
6:38
Speaker 1: owed back taxes to the irs from the raising Hell
6:41
Speaker 1: days when Run DMC were making history as the first
6:44
Speaker 1: hip hop group to go platinum and then multiplatinum. Now,
6:49
Speaker 1: instead of celebrating one million records sold, Jay was trying
6:52
Speaker 1: to wrap his head around the half million dollars that
6:54
Speaker 1: he owed the US government. So he opened a recording
6:57
Speaker 1: studio called twenty four to seven and started a record label,
7:01
Speaker 1: JMJ Records to get work as a producer and talent scout,
7:06
Speaker 1: but not before Uncle Sam put a lean on the
7:08
Speaker 1: money that was coming in, which sucked because he needed
7:12
Speaker 1: that money desperately, not only for himself, but because a
7:16
Speaker 1: lot of people depended on him. There was his mom
7:19
Speaker 1: down in North Carolina, his cousins who needed help hanging
7:22
Speaker 1: their way through college, his own wife and kids, and
7:26
Speaker 1: his sister in her house which Jay bank rolled, along
7:29
Speaker 1: with the guy currently crashing on his sister's couch. Jay's
7:32
Speaker 1: old childhood friend, Ronald Washington aka Tannard, who had just
7:37
Speaker 1: gotten out of prison in Maryland and returned home to
7:39
Speaker 1: Hollis Queen's, the neighborhood wherever since there were kids, Jay
7:43
Speaker 1: was known to have your back. That's how it worked
7:45
Speaker 1: in the close knit community of Hollis. Jay had your back,
7:49
Speaker 1: you had Jay's. Still one couldn't be too safe out
7:54
Speaker 1: in the reception area, really just a corner with a
7:57
Speaker 1: computer off to the side of this makeshift line un
8:00
Speaker 1: Randy's sister, Lydia, high jmj's office manager, was busy looking
8:06
Speaker 1: through Jay's itinerary for tomorrow. It entailed the flight to Washington,
8:10
Speaker 1: d C, where he was scheduled to perform with run
8:13
Speaker 1: DMC at a Wizard Celtics basketball game. Jay wasn't thinking
8:18
Speaker 1: about planes or basketball at the moment. He was mashing
8:21
Speaker 1: the buttons on his controller, trying to get the ball
8:23
Speaker 1: downfield and score on his young opponent here, so he
8:26
Speaker 1: wasn't paying attention when the footsteps from outside approached the
8:29
Speaker 1: main door of the studio, directly across the room from
8:33
Speaker 1: where Jay and Rincone were gaming. Jay wasn't expecting anyone,
8:37
Speaker 1: but tonight's visitor was unexpected and unannounced. The door flew
8:42
Speaker 1: open and two men walked inside, one tall and one short.
8:46
Speaker 1: They were armed. Lydia, right there by the entrance in
8:49
Speaker 1: her little nook, screamed and tried to make a run
8:52
Speaker 1: for it. The tall one pushed her down to the ground,
8:55
Speaker 1: aimed his gun at her head, told her not to move.
8:59
Speaker 1: Hring Con self began to ring and Jay jumped as
9:01
Speaker 1: a short one, a hoodie draped over his head, made
9:04
Speaker 1: a bline for the coach. His arm extended, his gun
9:07
Speaker 1: locked loaded and pointed right at Jay. Oh shit, Jay
9:11
Speaker 1: yell reaching over to where his thirty eight sat on
9:13
Speaker 1: the arm of the other couch, and before he could
9:15
Speaker 1: grab it, the gunman fired. The shot was loud and
9:20
Speaker 1: the range was close. Gunpowder burned Jay's shirt, The bullet
9:24
Speaker 1: hit him in the head, and Jay was killed instantly.
9:28
Speaker 1: The gunman then fired again, this time hitting ring Cone
9:31
Speaker 1: in the leg. Ring Cone screamed in pain and fell
9:34
Speaker 1: to the ground, grabbing his bleeding leg. While the two
9:36
Speaker 1: gunmen hauled ass out of the studio, Randy Allen came
9:40
Speaker 1: bounding out of the adjacent room, a three eighty semi
9:43
Speaker 1: automatic in his hand. Whether or not he ben dipping
9:45
Speaker 1: his hand in the record company's bank account didn't matter
9:48
Speaker 1: at this moment. He had Jay's back just like Jay
9:51
Speaker 1: had his, and Randy tore out of the studio after
9:53
Speaker 1: Jay's assailants, chasing them for a moment down Marek Boulevard,
9:57
Speaker 1: but it was no use. The killers a head start
10:01
Speaker 1: and they were fast. Soon they had disappeared into the night,
10:06
Speaker 1: and Randy stopped running and turned around, the cold rain
10:09
Speaker 1: beating down on his face. He tossed the gun in
10:12
Speaker 1: a parking lot and headed back to the studio, where
10:15
Speaker 1: his friend, his business partner, and Hollis Queen's caretaker, one
10:19
Speaker 1: of hip hop's true pioneers, lay dead on his studio floor.
10:53
Speaker 1: Twenty two years earlier, in nineteen eighty, fifteen year old
10:57
Speaker 1: Jason Maizel was still two years away from becoming a
11:00
Speaker 1: hip hop alter ego jam Master J. At the time,
11:04
Speaker 1: he was just another kid coming up in Hallis Queen's
11:06
Speaker 1: and looking for a crew to roll with. Jay's mother
11:09
Speaker 1: and father, a school teacher and a social worker, had
11:13
Speaker 1: moved their family to Hollis back in the seventies because
11:16
Speaker 1: at that time it was a safe, middle class neighborhood,
11:18
Speaker 1: far removed from New York City's fabled crime and crime.
11:22
Speaker 1: But by nineteen eighty, Heroin had long since moved in
11:26
Speaker 1: next door over on two hundred and fifth Street, the
11:29
Speaker 1: Heroin Block, just two streets from where Jay lived on
11:32
Speaker 1: two hundred and third, and that changed everything. As Russell Simmons,
11:37
Speaker 1: run DMC's manager and the co founder of def Jam Records,
11:40
Speaker 1: would say, the drug fueled sea change in Hollis destroyed lives.
11:45
Speaker 1: Instead of moving up, a lot of kids moved down.
11:49
Speaker 1: But at fifteen years old, you don't know whether you're
11:51
Speaker 1: going up or down. You're just going with the flow.
11:54
Speaker 1: You hang out with the aptly named Hollis Crew, a
11:57
Speaker 1: loose collection of kids from the neighborhood looking to protect
12:00
Speaker 1: what's yours, whatever that means. And some days it's your rep,
12:04
Speaker 1: other days it's your turf, doesn't matter. You wake up
12:07
Speaker 1: in the morning, put on your black jeans and your
12:09
Speaker 1: black floor hat and then your white shel toe Adidas
12:12
Speaker 1: with laces that match whatever color shirt you're wearing, and
12:15
Speaker 1: you hit the bricks to go roll with the boys.
12:18
Speaker 1: And then right there, inside the halls of Andrew Jackson
12:21
Speaker 1: High School, where just months earlier you all watched slack
12:24
Speaker 1: jawed as cops rated a heroin factory operating out of
12:28
Speaker 1: the school's basement, Those five percenter dudes are making a
12:31
Speaker 1: bee line to your crew, looking to beef about what
12:34
Speaker 1: you don't know somebody says some shit, or looked at
12:36
Speaker 1: a guy the wrong way, or or probably some other
12:39
Speaker 1: stupid reason, like it always was. But even in the
12:42
Speaker 1: face of stupidity, you're loyal and you're always looking out.
12:47
Speaker 1: So when one of the five percenters pulls out a piece,
12:49
Speaker 1: when the muzzle flashes and the shot rings out so
12:52
Speaker 1: loud that it rattles the lockers nearby, so loud that
12:55
Speaker 1: you think you've gone death in one ear, and you
12:58
Speaker 1: notice your boy, Wendel. That's Wendyill Fight, by the way,
13:01
Speaker 1: is soon to be known on the ones and twos
13:02
Speaker 1: as DJ Hurricane. You see Wendell grimace as he takes
13:06
Speaker 1: a bullet to his leg. You immediately spring into action.
13:10
Speaker 1: You cover Wendell with your own body and help pull
13:12
Speaker 1: him to safety because you know that Wendell will do
13:14
Speaker 1: the same for you. And when the violence of the
13:18
Speaker 1: Hollis Crew turns you off and sends you looking for
13:21
Speaker 1: a different gang, you start hanging out with some smashing
13:24
Speaker 1: grab dudes, and this is where you meet some of
13:26
Speaker 1: your lifelong friends, guys like Randy Allen, Darren, Big d Jordan,
13:31
Speaker 1: and the dude who will crash on your sister's couch
13:33
Speaker 1: two decades later Ronald Tynard Washington. But unlike these dudes,
13:38
Speaker 1: you don't go full criminal, at least not first. You
13:41
Speaker 1: play a supporting role. You let the guys stash their
13:44
Speaker 1: stolen goods in your parents' basement. Soon enough, however, they
13:50
Speaker 1: convince you to go with them on one of their
13:52
Speaker 1: nightly runs tonight. The mark is in a fancier part
13:55
Speaker 1: of Queen's and Jamaica Estates, where you rummage through a
13:59
Speaker 1: doctor's house for the finer things. You're green and this
14:03
Speaker 1: is your first time, so on your way out, you're
14:06
Speaker 1: sloppy and a security guard spots you. He yells at you,
14:09
Speaker 1: and your adrenaline spikes. You start to run, your legs
14:14
Speaker 1: pumping in, your heart pounding you. Hear a gunshot and
14:17
Speaker 1: then another, Holy shit, this fucking guy's trying to shoot you.
14:21
Speaker 1: You run faster. Everything's a blur and you round a
14:24
Speaker 1: corner and they're waiting for you, and not your friends,
14:27
Speaker 1: not your crew, but the cops. You only do a
14:32
Speaker 1: little time at a juvie center in the Bronx, but
14:35
Speaker 1: it's your folks disappointment in you that stings the most.
14:38
Speaker 1: And you're well aware, even as a teenager that this
14:41
Speaker 1: isn't the way. There are other crews out there that
14:44
Speaker 1: distance themselves from the long arm of the law. I'm
14:47
Speaker 1: lucky for you you are musically inclined, and also lucky
14:51
Speaker 1: for you, this new phenomenon called rap music is taking over.
14:56
Speaker 1: You're in the right place, at the right time, with
14:57
Speaker 1: the right set of skills, and so you trade in
15:01
Speaker 1: a life of crime for a life of music, a
15:04
Speaker 1: life behind the decks that will take you from the
15:06
Speaker 1: mean streets of Hollis to the TV sets of every
15:09
Speaker 1: suburban kid in America. Jason Miselle's commitment to a life
15:13
Speaker 1: on the up and up, a life that blazed a
15:16
Speaker 1: trail in the American culture while striking an anti drug,
15:19
Speaker 1: anti crime bee boy stance, was a big reason why
15:23
Speaker 1: upon his murder in two thousand and two, so many
15:26
Speaker 1: had a hard time believing that the motive for that
15:29
Speaker 1: murder was rooted in the kind of life that Jay
15:32
Speaker 1: seemingly left behind like so many other childish things. But
15:37
Speaker 1: disbelief didn't stop. The word on the street. Word was
15:42
Speaker 1: Jay had been selling drugs and he was gunned down
15:44
Speaker 1: after a drug deal had gone very, very bad. No
15:50
Speaker 1: one wanted to believe that Jay was involved in the
15:52
Speaker 1: drug trade, and no one wanted to believe the article
15:54
Speaker 1: written by Frank Owen and Playboy Magazine the following year,
15:57
Speaker 1: two thousand and three that made this explosive room Republic.
16:01
Speaker 1: Frank Owen got a lot of hate from the hip
16:03
Speaker 1: hop community for writing that piece, a piece that many
16:06
Speaker 1: said was slanderous, bullshit that existed for no other reason
16:09
Speaker 1: but to tear down one of the good guys. But
16:12
Speaker 1: here's the thing, Frank Owen was not bullshitting. Jay had
16:19
Speaker 1: been working a side house for years in which he
16:22
Speaker 1: was a middleman who helped to shift a lot of cocaine,
16:26
Speaker 1: and he didn't even have to get his hands dirty.
16:28
Speaker 1: Sometimes he just had to call his contact, a supplier
16:31
Speaker 1: who everyone knew was Uncle, and then connect Uncle with
16:35
Speaker 1: a seller. Two phone calls tops Uncle would make sure
16:39
Speaker 1: the coke was waiting in a stash house, and the
16:41
Speaker 1: seller would pick it up, move it, and everyone got theirs.
16:45
Speaker 1: For Jay, his take was three grand per kilo, So
16:48
Speaker 1: if the deal was twenty kilos, say that was sixty
16:51
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in Jay's pocket, and all he had to
16:53
Speaker 1: do to make that money was just match up a
16:55
Speaker 1: supplier with a seller, just like he did in the studio,
16:59
Speaker 1: matching a beat makeer with an MC. All of the
17:02
Speaker 1: shock and surprise and outrage that came in the wake
17:05
Speaker 1: of that Playboy article from those who knew Jay. Some
17:09
Speaker 1: of it was legit, but some of it was a
17:11
Speaker 1: put on because J had people watching his back, just
17:14
Speaker 1: like Jay once watched theirs. Now they were looking out
17:18
Speaker 1: for Jay's legacy, looking to protect his good name from
17:21
Speaker 1: being tarnished by the revelation of some truly shady shit,
17:25
Speaker 1: but given the circumstances, truly necessary shit or Jay, at least,
17:29
Speaker 1: because Jay was in debt, J was a provider. J
17:34
Speaker 1: needed money. It wasn't about good or bad. To Jay,
17:37
Speaker 1: it wasn't about right or wrong. It was about what
17:39
Speaker 1: you needed and what you had to do to get it.
17:44
Speaker 1: But no one talked about what Jay did to make
17:46
Speaker 1: ends meet, And no one talked about what they saw
17:48
Speaker 1: in Jay's studio the night he was murdered. Not Tony McCone,
17:52
Speaker 1: the assistant who was shot in the leg about the killer,
17:55
Speaker 1: and not really High, the office manager who was forced
17:58
Speaker 1: to the ground by the second gunman. The cops asked
18:01
Speaker 1: both of them if they knew who shot Jay, and
18:03
Speaker 1: they both said they did not. They lied, but they
18:06
Speaker 1: didn't lie it to some noble desire to protect Jay's legacy.
18:09
Speaker 1: They kept quiet to protect themselves because they were afraid.
18:13
Speaker 2: They feared that if they told what they really knew,
18:16
Speaker 2: that the same thing that happened to Jay what happened
18:19
Speaker 2: to them.
18:26
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after this. We're were were. The
18:36
Speaker 1: man Jay called Uncle was waiting for him in the
18:39
Speaker 1: DC hotel room. Uncle was all business, clear, direct and
18:45
Speaker 1: to the point, just as Jay's stripped down rap beats
18:48
Speaker 1: were once the most clear and direct music you could
18:51
Speaker 1: hear on the radio. But this was the summer of
18:54
Speaker 1: two thousand and two, and Jay, still a young man
18:57
Speaker 1: at age thirty seven, was being forced into entering his
19:00
Speaker 1: godfather era. Early the music business was a fickled bitch.
19:06
Speaker 1: Yet Jay made the transition gracefully, seeing as how he
19:10
Speaker 1: was already well established as something of a hip hop ambassador,
19:14
Speaker 1: mentoring the new crop of talent on the come up.
19:16
Speaker 1: Guys like fifty Cent and Onyx came as naturally to
19:20
Speaker 1: Jay as the wide brim fedora he was known to
19:22
Speaker 1: rock on the regular. The money, however, was more elusive
19:26
Speaker 1: hence this clandestine meet up with Uncle. Here. Uncle laid
19:31
Speaker 1: it out easy, like he always did, ten kilos of coke.
19:35
Speaker 1: Jay had seven days to find a seller. As usual,
19:39
Speaker 1: Jay didn't need to put up any money. Uncle trusted him.
19:42
Speaker 1: In turn, Jay trusted once he found a seller and
19:45
Speaker 1: had the money in hand, Uncle would reward him with
19:48
Speaker 1: his cut, which in this instance would be thirty grand.
19:52
Speaker 1: For Jay was a lightlift, some of the easiest money
19:55
Speaker 1: he'd ever made. He thanked. Uncle left the hotel, but
19:58
Speaker 1: went outside to his car, where his old friend Ronald
20:01
Speaker 1: Washington aka Tanard, the guy who was crashing on his
20:04
Speaker 1: sister's couch, was waiting. Together, they hit the road due
20:08
Speaker 1: northeast to Baltimore, where j knew a guy who was
20:11
Speaker 1: ready to pick up where Jay was putting down. Tannard
20:15
Speaker 1: didn't have to be there. Tannard was there because Jay
20:19
Speaker 1: was just about the most loyal dude in the game,
20:21
Speaker 1: and there was a place in his adult life for
20:23
Speaker 1: all the other loyal dudes he used to run with
20:25
Speaker 1: as a kid, like Randy Allen, who now worked as
20:28
Speaker 1: Jay's business partner, or Randy's sister Lydia, who ran the
20:32
Speaker 1: record label office, and then there was Carl big D Jordan,
20:36
Speaker 1: who J and Run DMC had hired as their new
20:39
Speaker 1: tour manager back in nineteen eighty five. At the time,
20:42
Speaker 1: big D was running his own side hustle as a
20:44
Speaker 1: confidential informant for the Queen's DA office. The same year
20:48
Speaker 1: he started on runs payroll. In order to avoid doing
20:51
Speaker 1: two to six for a weapons charge, big D testified
20:55
Speaker 1: against a guy named Joseph Money Thomas, who was on
20:58
Speaker 1: trial for murder. Big D helped put Money in prison
21:02
Speaker 1: twenty five to life. In the eyes of the streets,
21:07
Speaker 1: run DMC was now running with a snitch. But to
21:10
Speaker 1: j big D was a friend first always, just like
21:15
Speaker 1: Ronald Tenard Washington, whom the streets had long whispered was
21:18
Speaker 1: the trigger man who shot down Tupac should Cure's best
21:21
Speaker 1: friend Randy Stretch Wallace as he was riding in a
21:23
Speaker 1: car in Hallis. Jay didn't fuck with all the gossip. Instead,
21:28
Speaker 1: Jay fucked with trust, and right now in a car
21:32
Speaker 1: headed from DC to Baltimore, Jay trusted the guy sitting
21:35
Speaker 1: next to him. After all, Jaye bought Tenar to brand
21:39
Speaker 1: new wardrobe. When Tnar got out of the joint and
21:41
Speaker 1: Jay gave him walking around, money in a place to stay.
21:44
Speaker 1: Tanard needed Jay, and it's really easy to trust a
21:48
Speaker 1: guy who needs you. The car approached the agreed upon
21:53
Speaker 1: meeting place and Jay and Tanard parked and stepped out
21:56
Speaker 1: of the vehicle, and the seller was waiting arms car.
22:00
Speaker 1: Jay and Tannard began their approach on foot, ready to
22:03
Speaker 1: quickly lay out the terms before the inevitable deal went down.
22:07
Speaker 1: But as they got closer, Jacob sensed Tanard was acting
22:10
Speaker 1: strange and Tnard's gate was slowing down, not in a
22:15
Speaker 1: mellow kind of way, but a skeptical one. Tanard was
22:18
Speaker 1: now locking eyes with the seller, who was returning the
22:20
Speaker 1: same intense stare. The fuck is he doing here? Tanard asked,
22:25
Speaker 1: referring to the seller, who Tannard was only now realizing
22:29
Speaker 1: was Ralph Mulgrave, a guy everyone called Yaquim. Jay and
22:34
Speaker 1: Tannard had known Yakim since way back in high school
22:38
Speaker 1: in Queen's but over the years, Jakim and Tannar's relationship
22:42
Speaker 1: had soured. Jay was only now seeing in real time
22:46
Speaker 1: just how much it had soured. Jaqum shook his head. Yeah, Jay,
22:52
Speaker 1: you didn't mention anything to me about this motherfucker. Tanard
22:56
Speaker 1: was there to help ja facilitate the movement of this
22:58
Speaker 1: particular batch of cocaine. In fact, by helping out Tanard
23:02
Speaker 1: along with Carl Big D Jordan's son, Carl Little D Jordan,
23:05
Speaker 1: Jay's godson, We're going to split a good chunk of
23:08
Speaker 1: Jay's earnings. But the tension that was starting to swamp
23:11
Speaker 1: this little meat up like the Marilyn Humidity, was saying otherwise.
23:16
Speaker 1: Tanard wasn't down to work with Yakim. Jaquim felt the same.
23:20
Speaker 1: In fact, Yaquim was gonna go get his gun. What
23:23
Speaker 1: do you need that for? Jay asked to shoot Tanard?
23:26
Speaker 1: Hold up, Hold up, hold up. Jay was saying, let's
23:28
Speaker 1: let's let cooler heads prevail, or rather Jay's cool head.
23:32
Speaker 1: If Jaquem and Tanar didn't want to work together, they
23:35
Speaker 1: didn't have to work together. It was as simple as that.
23:38
Speaker 1: But this deal was gonna happen, and it had to
23:40
Speaker 1: happen in seven days or less. Jay wasn't about to
23:43
Speaker 1: break a sweat finding another Cellar. Jaquin was this guy.
23:46
Speaker 1: The easy solution, in Jay's eyes, was to cut Tenard
23:50
Speaker 1: and thus also cut his godson, Carl Little D Jordan
23:54
Speaker 1: out of the deal. Allegedly, this is what happened, and
23:59
Speaker 1: as soon as it did, As soon as he made
24:01
Speaker 1: that decision, jam Master Jay's days were numbered. Not long
24:26
Speaker 1: after Jay was murdered, on October thirtieth, two thousand and two,
24:29
Speaker 1: police arrested Tenard for knocking over a string of stores
24:33
Speaker 1: and hotels while armed. In custody. He was asked if
24:37
Speaker 1: he knew anything about who killed Jay, seeing as he
24:40
Speaker 1: and the DJ have been close friends for decades. What
24:43
Speaker 1: Tenar had said next was shocking. He told the cops
24:49
Speaker 1: that on the night of October thirtieth, he was walking
24:52
Speaker 1: towards Jay's studio in the rain with a pocket full
24:54
Speaker 1: of bullets. It procured the bullets for Jay, who is
24:58
Speaker 1: currently holed up in his student udio recording yes, but
25:01
Speaker 1: also increasingly paranoid as he got deeper and deeper into
25:05
Speaker 1: the drug trade and all its inherent dangers. The bullets
25:09
Speaker 1: meant for Jay's thirty eight were designed to make Jay
25:12
Speaker 1: feel a little safer. Tanard was walking fast, walking with purpose,
25:17
Speaker 1: dodging the rain drops, and he was just about there
25:20
Speaker 1: when suddenly he saw two figures emerge from the studio
25:23
Speaker 1: and start running up the street. One was tall and
25:26
Speaker 1: one was short, and there was no mistaking who they were.
25:29
Speaker 1: In Tannard's eyes, the two men were Carl Big D
25:33
Speaker 1: Jordan and his son, Jay's godson, Carl Little D Jordan Junior.
25:38
Speaker 1: Days later, according to Tanard, little D told him my
25:42
Speaker 1: pops wasn't supposed to shoot Jay. This version of events
25:46
Speaker 1: struck the cops as a little odd because both Lydia High,
25:50
Speaker 1: the office manager, and Tony Rincon, the young studio gopher
25:53
Speaker 1: who got shot in the leg, had both gotten a
25:56
Speaker 1: good look at the gunman that night, and they knew
25:58
Speaker 1: who Big D and Little D were, and yet they
26:00
Speaker 1: claimed they didn't recognize either assassin. And if Tanard was
26:04
Speaker 1: hoping that his eyewitness testimony would somehow help with his
26:07
Speaker 1: own legal troubles, he was dead wrong. With Tannard's revelation
26:12
Speaker 1: not panning out due to the lack of evidence, he
26:15
Speaker 1: was sentenced to seventeen and a half years for his
26:17
Speaker 1: past transgressions. The suspects, meanwhile, began to pile up. There
26:23
Speaker 1: was Randy Allen, Jay's longtime friend and business partner, who,
26:26
Speaker 1: according to some sources, was about to be fired by
26:28
Speaker 1: Jay because he'd been stealing money from the record label.
26:31
Speaker 1: Some even swore that Randy was the benefactor of Jay's
26:34
Speaker 1: half a million dollar life insurance policy. Then there was
26:37
Speaker 1: New York City drug lord Kenneth's Supreme Griff, who had
26:40
Speaker 1: been beefing with Jay's protege fifty Cent. The cops couldn't
26:44
Speaker 1: rule out the possibility that Jay had somehow wound up
26:46
Speaker 1: caught in some sort of pissing match crossfire. And there
26:50
Speaker 1: was another known Queen's figure, Curtis Scoon, whom the police
26:54
Speaker 1: favored as their guy early on. Scoon, it turned out,
26:58
Speaker 1: had been burned some seven years prior to the murder
27:00
Speaker 1: when he was unable to recoup the money he put
27:02
Speaker 1: up for one of Jay's drug deals. But Scoon was
27:05
Speaker 1: adamant that Jay had ultimately made it good and there
27:08
Speaker 1: was no bad blood between them. And besides, why the
27:11
Speaker 1: hell would Schoon murder j over some missing money from
27:14
Speaker 1: seven years ago? It just didn't make any sense. And
27:18
Speaker 1: all of this continued to make no sense for years.
27:22
Speaker 1: But in twenty sixteen, nearly a decade and a half
27:25
Speaker 1: after Jay's murder, after it looked like the case had
27:28
Speaker 1: gone cold for good, a witness's conscience finally got the
27:31
Speaker 1: best of them, and they talked first. However, the US
27:35
Speaker 1: Attorney's Office shed some light on the bigger picture concerning
27:38
Speaker 1: the drug trade that Jay was involved in. In that
27:43
Speaker 1: same year, they uncovered the true identity of Uncle Jay's supplier.
27:48
Speaker 1: Uncle was Terry Flennery, one of the co founders of
27:52
Speaker 1: the Black Mafia Family, who at the time of Jay's
27:55
Speaker 1: death were one of the largest cocaine distributors in the country.
27:58
Speaker 1: They were also rumored to have given Diddy the startup
28:01
Speaker 1: cash for bad Boy Records. Again rumored, but I digress.
28:05
Speaker 1: The reason that Jay was given such large amounts of
28:08
Speaker 1: coke to move with no money expected up front was
28:12
Speaker 1: because he was being used knowingly or unknowingly to launder
28:16
Speaker 1: dirty drug money from one of the biggest players in
28:19
Speaker 1: the game. But back to this witness and their conscience.
28:23
Speaker 1: When it came to big players, you didn't need one
28:25
Speaker 1: to crack this case wide open. It was actually the
28:28
Speaker 1: smallest player in the whole story who made the biggest noise.
28:33
Speaker 1: Uriel Tony Rncone, the studio gopher twenty five at the
28:37
Speaker 1: time of Jay's death, who had for years said that
28:40
Speaker 1: he either didn't know the gunman or didn't get a
28:42
Speaker 1: good look at their faces. In twenty sixteen, however, Ringcone
28:47
Speaker 1: finally came forward with the identity of the man who
28:49
Speaker 1: shot him and murdered j It was Jay's godson, Carl
28:54
Speaker 1: Little D. Jordan Little D pulled the trigger, not his father,
28:59
Speaker 1: Jay's old friend Big D, as Tanard had claimed. In fact,
29:04
Speaker 1: Big D wasn't involved at all. It was Tannard all along.
29:09
Speaker 1: He was the other gunman, the one who forced Lydia
29:12
Speaker 1: to the floor and covered for Little D as Jay
29:15
Speaker 1: was executed at close range with no mercy. Tanard was
29:19
Speaker 1: just another gangster desperately trying to toss blame to anyone,
29:23
Speaker 1: even his old friends when he found his ass on
29:25
Speaker 1: the line. Tannard was still serving time for his armed
29:30
Speaker 1: robbery spree in the summer of twenty twenty, just months
29:33
Speaker 1: after our first episode on rug DMC went live when
29:37
Speaker 1: he and Little D were charged with the murder of
29:39
Speaker 1: Jason Mizell aka JM Master J by the US Attorney
29:44
Speaker 1: for the Eastern District of New York. According to the government,
29:48
Speaker 1: Tannard and Little D conspired to kill j as retaliation
29:52
Speaker 1: for getting caught out of that Baltimore drug deal. Leaving
29:55
Speaker 1: them without their financial windfall. The reluctant testimony of Ralph
29:59
Speaker 1: mul Grave aka Yaquim, the seller Tnard had refused to
30:03
Speaker 1: work with, helped prove the government's argument, and on February
30:07
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, twenty twenty four, a federal journey Brooklyn returned
30:11
Speaker 1: a guilty verdict against Ronald Tnard Washington and Carl littl
30:15
Speaker 1: D Jordan Junior. As of the recording of this episode,
30:20
Speaker 1: both men are still awaiting sentencing, facing a mandatory minimum
30:24
Speaker 1: of twenty years to life in prison. So why did
30:27
Speaker 1: Tony Rincone wait fourteen years to tell the truth to
30:30
Speaker 1: positively identify who killed j. It's like I told you
30:34
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the episode, people close to Jay
30:36
Speaker 1: were concerned about destroying his reputation or, as in Rincone's case,
30:41
Speaker 1: concerned about their own safety. When asked, rincon gave Hiss
30:46
Speaker 1: a reason for keeping quiet and just three short words.
30:50
Speaker 1: I was scared, just as Jammaster j was scared when
30:56
Speaker 1: the night he died, his thirty eight by his side,
30:59
Speaker 1: knowing that's something that someone was coming, even if you
31:03
Speaker 1: didn't know who or why. But damn to have the
31:08
Speaker 1: deed done by your so called friends, by your family,
31:11
Speaker 1: by the ones who were supposed to have your back,
31:14
Speaker 1: just as you had theirs. That's nothing short of a disgrace.
31:21
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and this this disgrace Land, all right.
31:38
Speaker 1: Thanks for rolling with me through this run DMC episode
31:41
Speaker 1: on the Great jam Master Jay Apple Podcast listeners, make
31:44
Speaker 1: sure you have auto downloads turned on so you don't
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Speaker 1: miss any episodes. Guys, I want to know, was run
31:49
Speaker 1: DMC the most influential hip hop group of all time?
31:53
Speaker 1: Not most influential artists group? Were they the most influential group? Okay,
31:58
Speaker 1: if they weren't, who was? Let me know? Nine oh
32:01
Speaker 1: six six six three eight semi a voicemail, semi a text.
32:04
Speaker 1: You might hear your voice or an answer to your
32:06
Speaker 1: question on the upcoming after Party episode. You can also
32:09
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32:12
Speaker 1: me up on the socials at Disgracelampod. Guys, I Gotta
32:16
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32:20
Speaker 1: Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.
32:23
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32:25
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33:09
Speaker 1: Rock a Rolla, He's a bad don Man