Nearly 24 years after the murder of Jam Master Jay, another conviction in the case has landed.
Jay Bryant, a 52-year-old resident of Far Rockaway, Queens, pleaded guilty yesterday to providing access to a studio in Queens where Jam Master Jay — born Jason Mizell, and the man largely responsible for Run-DMC’s culture-shifting sound — was recording. This allegedly allowed for Karl Jordan, Jr. and Ronald Washington to ambush and murder Mizell.
“I helped them kill Jason Mizell,” Bryant said in a prepared statement during a court appearance yesterday, according to the New York Times.
At the time of his murder, Mizell was in a lounge on the studio’s second floor with another man when two men were buzzed in. Jordan and Washington were convicted of the killing two years ago; Jordan’s conviction was overturned in Dec. 2025. A similar motion from Washington was denied.
Alongside Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Mizell constructed the backbone of one of the most influential rap groups in history, with hits like “Walk This Way,” Run-DMC’s 1986 duet with Aerosmith, as well as “Rock Box,” “It’s Tricky” and “King of Rock.” They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. Mizell also founded the label JMJ Records in the mid-’80s, later signing the rap group Onyx and an early-career 50 Cent.
“More than two decades after the cold-blooded, execution-style killing of Mr. Mizell, an exhaustive investigation revealed Bryant’s role and today he finally admitted his guilt,” Joseph Nocella, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a press release Monday.
Mizell was murdered on Oct. 30, 2002, allegedly in retaliation for cutting Jordan and Washington out of a $200,000 cocaine distribution deal set up by Mizell. “Jason wasn’t a drug dealer. He just used it to make ends meet,” an associate of Mizell told jurors in the murder trial.
Reached by phone, a spokesperson for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment on whether this was expected to be the final conviction in the case.
Bryant faces a mandatory minimum term of 15 years and up to 20 years in prison.
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