December 4, 2022 — Internal dissention within Jam Master Jay’s group of childhood buddies placed the legendary DJ in the middle of a long-simmering feud between two of his closest friends and ultimately led to a 10-kilo drug deal involving the infamous Black Mafia Family falling apart and Jam Master Jay being murdered, according to sources and court files.
The following recollection of events centering on the conspiracy to murder Jam Master Jay was composed by combining the epic reporting by British investigative journalist Frank Owen, a review of federal court documents and law enforcement files and first and second-hand sources with direct knowlwedge of Jam Master Jay, his links to BMF and the circumstances that coalesced to create the foundation of his murder plot:
In the spring of 2002, Jam Master Jay spearheaded an effort by the Black Mafia Family, a dominant force in the U.S. wholesale cocaine business, to establish a Baltimore BMF crew. This effort was supported by BMF co-founder Terry (Southwest T) Flenory but quickly devolved into a Shakespearean-like drama of deception, betrayal and a rehashing of bad blood between members of Jam Master Jam’s inner-circle.
Jam Master Jay (born Jason Mizell) was part of the pioneering rap group Run DMC that disrupted the pop-music charts in the 1980s with their border-shattering brand of hip-hop and fashion. During his youth growing up in Queens, he ran with a teenage burglary crew alongside his best friends, Ronnie (Tinard) Washington, Darren (Big D) Jordan, Randy (MDR) Allen and a man known only as “Yakim.” Even after Jam Master Jay became a world-famous rap figure, all four of these men remained in his orbit Jordan was Run DMC’s manager, Allen, his right-hand man and business partner and Allen’s sister, his personal secretary.
Run DMC lost popularity in the 1990s and Jam Master Jay encountered a series of financial difficulties, culminating in a $500,000 bill from the IRS for unpaid back taxes. He decided to turn to the drug trade to fix his money problems and went to L.A. in the late months of 1995 to try and find himself a connection for cocaine at the wholesale level.
His first attempt failed miserably. Jam Master Jay was robbed and beaten inside a South Central L.A. stash house around Christmas 1995. The assailants got away with $30,000 and all of the jewelry Jam Master Jay was wearing on the day of the stick-up.
Then, Jam Master Jay’s fortunes suddenly changed for the better and he was introduced to a low-key Terry Flenory at an L.A. nightclub in early 1996. Flenory was a fan of Run DMC and unbeknownst to Jam Master Jay at that moment, had access to an endless supply of powder cocaine. Initially, they spoke about producing a major motion picture together, a crime-thriller called Forever Frank. The financing for the film fell through at the last second and Flenory filled his new buddy in on how he really made his money. Soon, “Southwest T” began feeding Jam Master Jay bricks of cocaine on consignment and the groundbreaking RUN DMC DJ was now a major dope boy headed back to Queens with the plug of all plugs.
Terry Flenory and his older brother Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory started BMF on the far Southwest Side of Detroit in 1989 and by the 2000s the organization had tentacles spread around the country, with BMF outlets operating in more than a dozen states. BMF maintained four primary hubs for packaging and distribution in Detroit, Atlanta, L.A. and St. Louis.
From 1996 through the time of his death six years later, Jam Master Jay dealt directly with Southwest T and the St. Louis crew. While Big Meech held things down in Atlanta, his baby bro Terry oversaw logistics for the entire organization and looked after BMF affairs in St. Louis, Detroit and Southern California. BMF’s New York operations were the responsibility of the Flenory brothers’ No. 3 in charge, Fleming (ILL) Daniels. It was inside the Daniels crew that Jam Master Jay operated in Queens, middling drug transactions for his partners in the dope game and keeping a sizeable chunk of each deal he brokered.
As 2002 dawned, Jam Master Jay became increasingly ambitious in his drug trafficking business with BMF. Rounding up a crew of mostly childhood friends from Queens, Jam Master Jay sold Southwest T on the idea of adding another BMF satellite franchise in Baltimore that Jam Master Jay would staff with his homeboys from Queens. Enter: his old teenage burglary gang. Jam Master Jay tapped “Yakim” as the captain of the still-in-the-making BMF B-More crew and promised a spot in the crew to “Tinard” Washington — just home from prison after six years “up state” for a drug case of his own — and “Big D” Jordan’s 18-year old son, Karl (Little D) Jordan — an aspiring rapper Jam Master Jay had acted as a producer for.
Tinard Washington, a man notorious for being an all-time feared New York City stick-up kid, returned to the streets in March 2002 and Jam Master Jay’s inner circle. In the months before Washington got locked up in 1996, he allegedly killed Queens rapper and one-time Thug Life group member Randy (Stretch) Walker in a murder that helped in sparking the East Coast-West Coast Rap War and robbed Yakim’s house of cash, jewelry and drugs.
To Jam Master Jay though, Tinard Washington was family and when he got out of prison, Jam Master Jay put him on the payroll as a bodyguard, purchased him clothes and a car and moved him into his home. Washington quickly began romancing Jam Master Jay’s sister and hanging out with Little D, tasking the eager-to-please teenager with driving him around and doing errands for him and Jam Master Jay.
Both Washington and Little D were being slowly integrated into Jam Master Jay’s drug operations. The pacing of that integration began causing friction; Washington and Little D wanted a larger role in Jam Master Jay’s cocaine business and felt Jam Master Jay was too slow in delivering what he was promising. One of, if not the most valuable things he was promising was a position in the still-forming Baltimore BMF franchise.
Things came to a head in July 2002, with a meeting and drug deal between Jam Master Jay, Terry Flenory, Tinard Washington and Yakim, held in a suite at the W Hotel in Washington D.C. Flenory brought 10 kilos of blow to front for sale in Baltimore. Jam Master Jay introduced Southwest T to Tinard Washington and Yakim and it didn’t go well.
Washington had driven Jam Master Jay to D.C. in Jam Master Jay’s black Lincoln Navigator SUV. Yakim came from Baltimore, where he had already set up shop. Neither Southwest T nor Yakim wanted Tinard involved in anything either one of them was doing in the drug game. Yakim held a grudge for Washington’s robbery of his house and Southwest T felt bad energy from knowing his role in Stretch Walker’s slaying since Flenory and Walker were friendly through mutual acquaintances and rap legends, Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.
Following the Washington D.C. transaction and Southwest T introductions, Jam Master Jay, Tinard and Yakim all left for Maryland and reconvened in Baltimore. That’s where things went south. Tinard and Yakim got into a heated verbal altercation and Jam Master Jay had to separate them from physically attacking each other.
At the end of the day. Jam Master Jay chose to side with Yakim and remove Tinard from his spot in the Baltimore BMF outfit Jam Master Jay was putting together and more specifically the 10-kilo coke deal he was promised a piece of. That decision cost him his life.
On the night of October 30, 2002, 37-year old Jam Master Jay was gunned down inside his Queens recording studio. Federal prosecutors claim Tinard Washington and Little D Jordan were the hit men and Little D Jordan, Jam Master Jay’s own godson, pulled the trigger at point-blank range.
Big D Jordan and Randy Allen were at the recording studio when Jam Master Jay got killed. Allen is alleged to have robbed Jam Master Jay’s corpse prior to calling 911.
Tinard Washington would eventually be convicted for armed robbery and received 17 years in prison. While in prison on that case, Washington, 58, was finally indicted with the 38-year old Little D Jordan for first-degree homicide in the murder of Jam Master Jay in August 2020. They’ve both pleaded not guilty and will go to trial in February.
If the Feds get their way, Terry Flenory will be on the witness stand to discuss the situation surrounding the Jam Master Jay slaying on his end. Flenory was subpoenaed back in the summer. The government doesn’t believe Southwest T, his big bro Big Meech, had anything to do with the murder of Jam Master Jay.
Big Meech and Terry Flenory aka Southwest T were indicted in the historic Operation Motor City Mafia case in October 2005, the No. 1 and No. 2 co-defendants in a sprawling drug conspiracy that resulted in nearly 200 convictions and practically $300,000,000 seized from BMF-affiliated bank accounts across the globe. On the morning their trial was to start in U.S. District Court out of Detroit in November 2007, Big Meech and Southwest T Flenory copped guilty pleads in exchange for 30-year prison terms. The 52-year old Southwest T got sprung during the COVID-19 outbreak in May 2020 on a home-confinement pass. Fifty-four year old Big Meech Flenory won’t be free until 2029.
Southwest T’s role in the personal beefs and squabbles between Jay Master Jay and his crew of boyhood buddies from Queens was hidden until the mid-2010s when Terry Flenory was living as a guest of Uncle Sam in a Kentucky federal correctional facility and a cooperating witness and former Jam Master Jay drug-dealing associate recognized him on a television documentary. Jam Master Jay had never revealed Flenory’s real name or official title in the BMF hierarchy to his drug crew, only referring to him as “Uncle.” DEA agents visited Southwest T in prison in 2016 to discuss the circumstances they felt led Jam Master Jay’s murder, however, Southwest T turned them away and refused to answer any questions.
The Starz cable network is preparing to unveil Season 2 of the smash-hit scripted TV drama Black Mafia Family, starring Big Meech’s son, “Lil’ Meech” as his dad and rapper and actor Da’Vinchi as Southwest T. The new season will premiere in January, on the heels of the 8-part Starz BMF docu-series (Blowing Money Fast) that came out in the fall of 2022, which featured exclusive content with Big Meech, but not Southwest T.
This article was originally posted here