Jam Master Jay, king of the cross-fader, was shot and killed last night. that's awful news. run - dmc was hugely influentiual on me as a kid. I think I remember the specific instant when I realized this as an 11-year old. I was in the back of my family's van with my friend brad kelly and my mom was taking us the 20 mile trip to my school. brad had discovered run-dmc with me sometime in '83 I think, right along the time, or just after white lines and jam on it. we had a routine of rapping the songs along with the band over the van stereo, sometimes alternating the lyrics as the guys did. we both did the jam master jay's cutting and slicing. It was on one of these trips where I distinctly remember the power this type of new music had over me, loudly rapping the lyrics to hard times, inflecting the words we were saying yet having no idea the meaning the message these guys from Queens had written.

In 1986 I brought home my copy of raisin hell into the mirrorred kids play room in the basement of our house. this was where I kept my drums and basically explored and experienced music. I loved the album - loved it - on one hand it seemed so whimsical and flowing and yet it was so real and powerful. I played the tape repeatedly, then learned to play drums on top of it.

Luckily I got to see run-dmc in 1995 in athens ga. I jumped and rapped along to the music along with 300 white frat boys. It didn't matter to me, nor did it matter to run-dmc and jam master jay, who completely turned it out.

"god damn that DJ made my day"

RIP Jam Master Jay