I knew Jam Master Jay only in passing. I met him when I was a young mail clerk at Profile Records, running packages between Profile and the recording studio where Run-DMC was completing their Back from Hell album.

But Jay was always the most approachable of the crew. One of the stories I tell in The Big Payback is about how Jason Mizell trained the man who now runs one of the four major record conglomerates in the world, Lyor Cohen.

Many thanks to Jerry Barrow at TheUrbanDaily for posting this conversation. An excerpt:

One of the most poignant moments in the book is when Jay dies and Lyor immediately goes to the recording studio [where he was killed.] There are three statuses in ancient Jewish society that have endured even though they don’t mean much in the modern world. The Cohains were the priests, the Levites were the next group under them and the masses were the Israelites. That’s where all of those last names came from. Kahn, Kane, Kahane, Cohen, they all mean the same thing. Lyor told me that a Cohain is not supposed to be around a dead body unless it is your wife, son, daughter or father,etc. But Lyor went to Jam Master Jay’s funeral because he considered him his brother. That speaks volumes.

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