No more rap from Run-DMC

Run-DMC is calling it quits after last week’s shooting death of member Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell, the pioneering rap group’s surviving members said Wednesday. Rappers Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniel said they decided to retire from touring and recording because Mizell, the group’s DJ, was irreplaceable.

“As a tribute to the positive legacy of Jam Master Jay, we started together, and we want the Run-DMC legacy to always reflect the three of us together,” Simmons said in New York City. Simmons and McDaniel were joined at a news conference by two dozen rappers, musicians, record executives and other members of the hip-hop community, pledging to help raise money to support Mizell’s widow and children, and to solicit information from the public that could lead to the arrest of the killer or killers.

-- Randy Lewis