Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Police Investigating Shooting Death of Jam Master Jay

Aired October 31, 2002 - 11:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We move onto New York City where police there are investigating the shooting death of Jam Master Jay of big time rap group Run DNC. The Grammy winning group has been called by the music industry the Beatles of rap music. He was killed in a recording in a studio in the neighborhood where group members grew up.
Our Michael Okwu is there now, and has the latest.

Michael, hello.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, good morning to you.

This is something of a scene that we have just seen way too often. Basically, a stretch of sidewalk transformed almost immediately into some sort of moving memorial. That's the scene that's unfolding just over my shoulder. It all happened at about 7:30 last night. Two men made their way up to a studio where Jam Master Jay was essentially producing the work of another artist. They shot him in the head, killing him, and they shot an associate in the leg. He is now injured.

We understand that, of course, almost immediately, there was an outpouring of emotion. Mourners here have braved the chilly raindrops last night here in New York and mixed in with police officers and other investigators, essentially to pay their respects to this particular rapper. Among them, many hip-hop artists.

This morning now, flowers, posters, signs, all of them reading things like "rest is peace," "peace forever," and "stop the violence."

It's ironically, Daryn, because this is a band who preached stop the violence and having a nonviolent community in a world.

We understand also that many of his mourners are going to be here throughout the course of the day. There may be some sort of vigil later on tonight. This was a band that was planning, planning on going back to the studio to put together their eighth album to coincide with their 20th anniversary. That will clearly not be happening in the future -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Michael, I want to share with you with a statement. You probably haven't seen a chance to see this since you are out in the field. But Russell Simmons, the big-time producer, has put out a statement about Jam Master Jay. And it kind of goes to what you were talking about what this group promoted. And he writes or says that "Before the media attributes this to the East Coast/West Coast violence, they should examine the 20-year history of Run DMC. They were the closest thing to gospel artists that the contemporary music community had. They talked about God or their higher selves, the importance of staying away from drugs and other inspirational and uplifting subject matter."

And I want to go to the point that you were making about how we have seen this before with rap artists, but this group very, very different in term of what they had in terms of promoting or being involved in violence.

OKWU: Very much so. People are sensitive because they believe that rap music has become so intimately associated with violence. And that might be the case in some quarters of rap industry. But specifically with these guys, who are considered to be the pioneers of hip-hop music, and certainly the pioneers of rap specifically, that is not the case.

Somebody just put a sign here. It would be too unwieldy to turn the camera over to show it to you. But it says "Now God has a deejay."

People here clearly very touched. In fact, the argument being made by a lot of his supporters that this is a group that actually fused ethnicities and groups together, because they were the first group to really sample rock music and put that together with some of the hip-hop sounds. And in doing that -- for example, the Aerosmith song in 1986 "Walk This Way," they basically made a remake of this that was a very, very popular song. And in doing this, they brought two different pulses together, two different races together, and people credit them for creating a whole new wave in music that brought different groups of people together, to listen and to make the same kinds of music -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Michael Okwu, in New York City, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 31, 2002 - 11:09   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We move onto New York City where police there are investigating the shooting death of Jam Master Jay of big time rap group Run DNC. The Grammy winning group has been called by the music industry the Beatles of rap music. He was killed in a recording in a studio in the neighborhood where group members grew up.
Our Michael Okwu is there now, and has the latest.

Michael, hello.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, good morning to you.

This is something of a scene that we have just seen way too often. Basically, a stretch of sidewalk transformed almost immediately into some sort of moving memorial. That's the scene that's unfolding just over my shoulder. It all happened at about 7:30 last night. Two men made their way up to a studio where Jam Master Jay was essentially producing the work of another artist. They shot him in the head, killing him, and they shot an associate in the leg. He is now injured.

We understand that, of course, almost immediately, there was an outpouring of emotion. Mourners here have braved the chilly raindrops last night here in New York and mixed in with police officers and other investigators, essentially to pay their respects to this particular rapper. Among them, many hip-hop artists.

This morning now, flowers, posters, signs, all of them reading things like "rest is peace," "peace forever," and "stop the violence."

It's ironically, Daryn, because this is a band who preached stop the violence and having a nonviolent community in a world.

We understand also that many of his mourners are going to be here throughout the course of the day. There may be some sort of vigil later on tonight. This was a band that was planning, planning on going back to the studio to put together their eighth album to coincide with their 20th anniversary. That will clearly not be happening in the future -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Michael, I want to share with you with a statement. You probably haven't seen a chance to see this since you are out in the field. But Russell Simmons, the big-time producer, has put out a statement about Jam Master Jay. And it kind of goes to what you were talking about what this group promoted. And he writes or says that "Before the media attributes this to the East Coast/West Coast violence, they should examine the 20-year history of Run DMC. They were the closest thing to gospel artists that the contemporary music community had. They talked about God or their higher selves, the importance of staying away from drugs and other inspirational and uplifting subject matter."

And I want to go to the point that you were making about how we have seen this before with rap artists, but this group very, very different in term of what they had in terms of promoting or being involved in violence.

OKWU: Very much so. People are sensitive because they believe that rap music has become so intimately associated with violence. And that might be the case in some quarters of rap industry. But specifically with these guys, who are considered to be the pioneers of hip-hop music, and certainly the pioneers of rap specifically, that is not the case.

Somebody just put a sign here. It would be too unwieldy to turn the camera over to show it to you. But it says "Now God has a deejay."

People here clearly very touched. In fact, the argument being made by a lot of his supporters that this is a group that actually fused ethnicities and groups together, because they were the first group to really sample rock music and put that together with some of the hip-hop sounds. And in doing that -- for example, the Aerosmith song in 1986 "Walk This Way," they basically made a remake of this that was a very, very popular song. And in doing this, they brought two different pulses together, two different races together, and people credit them for creating a whole new wave in music that brought different groups of people together, to listen and to make the same kinds of music -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Michael Okwu, in New York City, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com