Pardon me while I pour out this 40-ouncer on the curb for my lost homie.

Jam Master Jay, the driving force behind Run DMC, spun to a different beat, bringing an often ridiculed music-style to the forefront of American music. Then he was killed.

-In the late ’80s, while the Adidas-clad Run and DMC spat hard-hitting lyrics, their friend Jayson Mizell, also known as Jam Master Jay, started spinning some of the most raw beats this side of the Beastie Boys.

His beats were a strange brew. They were punk. They were rap. They were metal. They were stronger, harder and more rocking than anything heard before him. It was as if AC/DC had a run in with Grandmaster Flash.

Jay proved that a DJ could be a band. It was Jay’s unique sound that glued Run and DMC. It was his sound that said, “Yeah, we’re for real.”

Run DMC’s image (black rimmed glasses, gold chains, addidas jumpsuits) was as groundbreaking as it was fresh. Image gave rap instant marketability. It catapulted rap into the limelight with Run DMC appearing on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and later gracing the cover of Rolling Stone.

Run DMC gave the rock/rap genre solid-definition at the same time, reinventing a near bottomed-out Aerosmith. It was a real spectacle seeing two of the biggest names in each of their prospective fields teaming up and succeeding; accomplishing a feat many doubted.

This past September I had tickets for Kid Rock and Aerosmith at the Tweeter Center. Run DMC was touring with them at the time, but they weren’t listed on my ticket. Walking past the mainstage, a black Run DMC banner unfurled onstage and out popped the two musicians, rapping furiously behind the strong and steady beats of Jam Master Jay.

As I walked to my lawn seat, Run DMC didn’t mean very much to me – I was there for Aerosmith. But nearly twenty years ago, Run DMC meant the world.

“The Eminem Show,” was released this past summer to the cheers and jeers of critics everywhere. Unquestionably, “The Eminem Show,” is the most successful rap/rock album to date, a genre Jam Master Jay helped create.

Take a good listen to that disc, give it a good spin or two. But don’t be suprised to hear a subtle scratching noise spinning inside your head.