RIP Jam Master Jay (January 21, 1965 - October 30, 2002)

On October 30, it will have been a whole five years since Jam Master Jay was tragically shot dead at his recording studio in Queens, New York. It doesn’t seem like that long ago.

One third of the pioneering rap group Run DMC, Jam Master Jay (born Jason Mizell) was one of the most respected and by most accounts one of the most-liked men in hip-hop. On the night before Halloween 2002, 37-year old Jason Mizell was at his recording studio in Queens, New York, when, according to some reports, two men were buzzed inside. Jay reportedly hugged one of the men, but moments later, guns were pulled and Jay was dead. Five years later, a substantial reward and an ongoing investigation have not yet brought Jay’s killers to justice.

This week I headed down to that very studio with my MTV News family — Rahman, Bernard, Nick and Shaheem — to be the first cameras ever allowed into the former JMJ studios since his death.

This weekend I took a ride about 30 minutes outside Manhattan over to Bayonne, New Jersey, to pay a visit to two of my favourite artists in the game. Both 50 and Akon were already hard at work by 10am on Sunday morning shooting the video for 50’s monster hit “I’ll Still Kill” at a giant warehouse set in the middle of nowhere.

As we arrived on set, the first thing we see is a brand new red Pontiac G8 racing up and down the strip doing doughnuts and 180s in the dirt — with 50 behind the wheel. At one point, 50 spun the car around at such a high speed that he nearly lost it completely (although he won’t admit it) causing the guy from Pontiac to have a small heart attack. This was no regular Pontiac G8 though. The red sports car complete with black racing stripe was one that 50 himself had customised and the engine had been upgraded to a massive 550 break horsepower — which is faster than most sports cars on the road. Apparently it does 0-60 in under 4 seconds.

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NY is finally cooling down but the world of MTV is still as hot as ever.

Last week I headed down to the Universal headquarters to catch up with an artist who’s been busy preparing his comeback. A comeback that has been 3 years in the making. After a highly publicised feud with 50 Cent that saw 50 victorious, Ja Rule disappeared almost completely and the future of Murder Inc held in the balance…until now.

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This is a new thread I’m going to start.

So Thursday, I’m walking down the corridor outside my office when my boy Josh stops me with the words, “Hey Tim, have you met Carl Weathers?’”

Now, if I’m honest, I didn’t have a clue who Carl Weathers was, so when I turned around I got the shock of my life: Standing in front of me was Apollo Creed! Yes, Apollo Creed himself. Apparently, they’re the same guy. (Check out how the MTV Movies staff reacted to Carl’s visit.)

From the very beginning of Jay-Z’s latest, “Blue Magic,” and its opening words, “It’s alive. It’s alive,” it’s clear that this is an official announcement — a decree, if you will — that hip-hop is alive and well.

“Blue Magic” brings out a morally ambiguous side of Jay, a side some thought had gone forever when he took the corporate throne. But this is exactly how a returning legend should sound.

It was the Pharrell Williams-produced “Drop It Like It’s Hot” that gave Snoop a new breath of life in 2004 and became his first single to reach #1 in the charts. And when JT decided to make the tricky move from boy-band member to full-fledged solo artist, it was Pharrell who produced and featured on his solo debut, “Like I Love You,” to great success. So, when Jay-Z decided that retirement wasn’t really for him, the rapper who could literally take his pick of any producer in the world went straight to Pharrell for his first official single since the album Kingdom Come. Read more…

Ja Rule is making his move.

The larger-than-life president of Murder Inc., Irv Gotti, came by the MTV studios this week to play some brand new soon-to-be-released material from Ja Rule’s new album, The Mirror. I went into the room with an open mind but with the understanding that this album marks a pivotal point in Ja Rule’s career, a line between success and fading into the background.

I remember a time about five years ago that Ja couldn’t do any wrong. He pretty much swept the board picking up just about every hip-hop award there was to grab, from the VMAs to the Grammys. He found his magic formula and stuck with it. Songs with J.Lo, Christina Milian, Ashanti and Mary J were some of his most radio-friendly hits, like “I’m Real,” “Rain on Me” and “Always on Time,” to name a few. Read more…

Okay, from Presidents to Britney Spears. This is why I love my job.

The situation is being constantly updated but here is the latest.

Yes, she deserved to have her kids taken away. Yes, she seems to have lost touch with reality which could make for some bad, bad parenting decisions. But yes, these celebrity blogs, websites, “news” outlets have been nasty. I saw on one website, a poll that asks “Do you think she’ll go out tonight?” I read another article, where the writer called her a gum snappin, panty-less slut.

Wow.

Can Britney ever come back from this……? I mean as a performer? As a mother? As someone who people will root for? By the sounds of the viewing audience, things are looking really bad……understatement of the year.

Xoxo