By Tim Molloy
The Associated Press

NEW YORK - Jam Master Jay's sonic experiments with spacious drum breaks and grinding guitar riffs helped make Run-DMC the first hip-hop group to break into mainstream music.

Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell (left), Darryl "DMC" McDaniels and Joseph "DJ Run" Simmons were "the Beatles of hip-hop." (Associated Press file) | ZOOM |

He joined Joseph "Run" Simmons and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels 20 years ago to form the group that would be more responsible than any other for spreading the idea that one person - a disc jockey - could provide the entire musical backdrop for a song.

"These are our Beatles," Public Enemy frontman Chuck D told the New York Times on Wednesday, hours after the 37-year-old was shot to death at a recording studio near the neighborhood where the group grew up. Chuck D had once rapped, "Run-DMC first said a DJ could be a band."

DJs like Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell, became adept at scratching vinyl records forward and backward in time with a beat, working one turntable with each hand, to create new sounds the original artists never imagined.

"We always knew rap was for everyone," Jay said in a 2001 interview with MTV. "Anyone could rap over all kinds of music."

The three members of the group grew up in middle-class homes in the Hollis neighborhood of Queens. Mr. Simmons and Mr. McDaniels started out rapping at parties, and later invited Mr. Mizell to form a group with them.

Rap pioneers

Mr. Simmons' brother, Russell, had formed a small label with producer Rick Rubin and signed early hip-hop stars including Kurtis Blow. The new group Joseph Simmons had formed with Mr. McDaniels and Mr. Mizell soon joined the roster.

While many early '80s hip-hop artists rapped over clean dance beats, Run-DMC and Mr. Rubin chopped up riffs from classic rock records for a grittier sound. The risk paid off with several rock-influenced hits, including "Rock Box" and "King of Rock."

But the sound finally exploded with audiences when the group remade the Aerosmith hit "Walk This Way," creating hip-hop's biggest crossover success of the time.

Many fans and artists cite the song as the first rap record they ever heard.

Though rap videos were rare on MTV at the time, "Walk This Way," with its elaborate story line of a comical grudge match between rappers and rockers, was a constant fixture on the station for months. The members of the group made an unforgettable impression with their black outfits and hats and white Adidas sneakers.

Raising Hell, the 1986 record that included "Walk This Way," "My Adidas" and "It's Tricky," sold more than 3 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.

Skillful scratching

Mr. Mizell wasn't the first to manipulate records by scratching them under a needle. But he did become one of hip-hop's best known and most respected DJs through his deft scratching and the group's spirited promotion of his skills.

A song called "Jam Master Jay" announced, "We got the master of a disco scratch/there's not a break that he can't catch. . . . Behind the turntables is where he stands/Then there is the movement of his hands/So when asked who's the best, y'all should say/Run-DMC and Jam Master Jay."

The group's cheerfully competitive wordplay had always promoted education and clean living, but members were linked to gang violence when fighting broke out on several stops of their national tour in support of Raising Hell.

Critics blamed the group and rap music for inciting fights between members of the Crips and Bloods gangs at California's Long Beach Arena. The trio condemned violence, and in 1986 called for a day of peace between warring Los Angeles street gangs.

"This is the first town where you feel the gangs from the minute you step into town to the time you leave," Mr. Mizell said.

Mr. Mizell is survived by his wife and three children.