Friends of Jam Master Jay say the last few weeks of his life were spent working on his Hot Ta Def record label which had the mission of creating stars from the talent he had recruited in Queens. He had just negotiated a distribution deal for his acts via Virgin.
Boe Skagz, one half of Hot Ta Def signing Rusty Waters, was working with Jay on the day he was shot. He told reporters this weekend: "Jay was really on the rhymes. If he ain't like one thing you said in your rhymes, you had to change your whole rhyme. He was most definitely a perfectionist when it came to the music."
Skagz went on to comment on how bizarre it was that the loved and revered Jam Master Jay was killed where he felt most comfortable — among the people. "Jay was the streets, Jay was the king. This whole thing is crazy because when you see him, you just think, 'That's Jam Master Jay.' When you have those three Adidas stripes on and a jacket, you don't need bodyguards. You got us. Our clique. In anybody's 'hood he was comfortable. The media is twisted, and a lot of the things they're saying are not right. The truth is that Jay was peaceful dude. There was never no reason for nobody to have drama with him."