Well-known rapper shot dead in studio

American rap fans were in shock yesterday after Jam Master Jay, a founding member of the pioneering band Run DMC, was gunned down in his New York recording studio.

He became the latest victim of the brutality that has surrounded rap stars but, unlike other murdered rappers, he avoided using violence as a theme for records.

Two men walked into the second-floor studio shortly before shots were fired in its lounge on Wednesday night, police said. They were still on the run yesterday

The 37-year-old disc jockey, whose real name was Jason Mizell, was shot once in the head in the studio's lounge and died at the scene, said Det Robert Price.

Urieco Rincon, 25, who was not a member of Run DMC, was shot in the leg, police said. About five other people in the studio at the time were not hurt.

"Rest In Peace Jam Master," Run DMC's official website read underneath a picture of Mizell.

At the scene, fans placed flowers, candles and remembrance messages next to a fence. Someone placed an Adidas trainer a reference to the group's hit song My Adidas with RIP JMJ hand-written in marker pen.

Mizell served as the platinum-selling group's disc jockey, providing background for singers Joseph Simmons, better known as Run, and Darryl McDaniels, better known as DMC.

The group is widely credited with helping bring hip-hop into music's mainstream, including the group's smash collaboration with Aerosmith on the 1980s standard Walk This Way and hits like Peter Piper and It's Tricky.

"We always knew rap was for everyone," Mizell said last year. "Anyone could rap over all kinds of music."

Mizell is the latest in a line of hip-hop artists to fall victim to violence. Rappers Notorious BIG and Tupac Shakur were murdered within seven months of each other in 1996 and 1997 crimes that some believe were the result of an east coast-west coast rap war.

But Run DMC and their songs were never about violence. The group promoted education and unity. In It's Tricky, they sang: "We are not thugs (we don't use drugs) but you assume (on your own), They offer coke (and lots of dope) but we just leave it alone."

In 1986, the trio said they were outraged by the rise of fatal gang violence in the Los Angeles area. They called for a day of peace between warring street gangs. Mizell's friends and fans gathered near the studio, located above a restaurant "They're the best. They're the pioneers ," said Arlene Clark, 39, who grew up in the same neighbourhood. Chuck D, the founder of the hip-hop group Public Enemy, blamed record companies and advertising for perpetuating a climate of violence in the rap industry. "When it comes to us, we're disposable commodities," he said. Mizell was married and had three children. Run DMC released a greatest-hits album earlier this year.