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00:00Your documentary was nominated four times for an Emmy so I am thrilled for you in your success
00:14let's talk about why you decided to tell this story and we all know there have been many
00:20tragedies in the hip-hop world why did this story stick out to you so let me just give
00:26you a little bit of a background as to how we even came to true crime and
00:29streaming at WABC I've already heard the praises of wonderful Deborah O'Connell when
00:35she was our then general manager I approached her and our then news director
00:41Chad Matthews and I said we are eyewitness news we are a legendary station in New York City we have
00:47covered every major news event with exclusive access and exclusive video for
00:53the last 30 years and I would see our video our archival video in other
00:58documentaries and that it just there was a light bulb that went off it made sense to
01:03me that we needed to leverage our own archival footage for a true crime
01:08documentary also I'm a crime reporter primarily and we have 90 seconds to tell
01:13the story and because I really do live eat sleep everything news I just always
01:19hated leaving all these details on the floor when I cover you know if I cover a
01:24three-week trial I still only get you know 90 seconds and the devil's in the
01:29details and sometimes those nuances of information are really really important
01:32and are memorable in storytelling because I believe if you touch the heart you can
01:38change the mind and that's kind of the mantra behind what I do I'll fast forward so I
01:44came up with a list of I just looked through all these big stories ever in
01:50New York City and I saw Jam Master Jay and honestly I had forgotten that he was
01:55murdered nobody ever spoke about the murder of Jam Master Jay 20 years 20 years 20
02:02years this October absolutely and it was really strange because he was such an
02:06icon in hip-hop you hear about biggie biggie biggie Tupac Tupac Tupac and then you
02:11know more recently Nipsey Hussle and pop smoke but he was such an influential
02:19like magnetic person in this industry why I just didn't get it and I'm not gonna
02:25like I'm not gonna lie like I had no idea the marsh I was jumping into because I'm
02:30originally from Texas I didn't know all the inside baseball and Orville and I you
02:33know I kind of really found out I was peeling back a lot of layers in that case so
02:37that was the first thing like we don't talk about it he deserves a lot more
02:41than that so in 2019 before the pandemic hit Deborah and Chad and I we talked
02:47about this project and something happened that's really unheard of Deborah was
02:51like okay do whatever you want to do it's like what you know and so and they
02:56were they were great and they allowed us to bring in an outside of my co-executive
03:01producer Rashidi Hendricks from metallic entertainment who's also a
03:04documentarian and worked in the music industry so he worked together and
03:09collaborated on this project so I he certainly deserves a lot of credit as
03:12well so basically we started the project the pandemic hit and it stopped
03:16like literally we the first week of March I met with Rolando Pujol he's one of
03:22our executive producers as well who's and Luke Richards out of OTV and Indies in
03:27Burbank and we're like okay we're gonna get this project going right we're
03:31finally getting it going we've been talking about this for six months and
03:34then I remember it was kind of like shell shock the pandemic shell shock okay
03:38we I guess we're not doing the documentary and I had to just like have a
03:42conversation with myself and say okay some things are meant to be I guess we're
03:46just never doing this because if there was just no landscape for it because we
03:50were in the heat of the pandemic but then there was a demand for streaming
03:53content right because everyone was at home and then there was an arrest in the case and I
04:00get a call from Luke he said hey you still want to do that Jam Master Jay
04:03document I was like yes I want to do it so that's the genesis of this project I
04:08felt there were a lot of questions unanswered and then the other thing
04:13about what you see in the trailer a little bit there's something that
04:17happened in this case and Orville can certainly speak to this as well there was
04:20a dynamic in the murder of Jam Master Jay that you just don't see in present day
04:26homicide investigations as well as older homicide investigations you you know he
04:31was murdered the next day someone would get on the radio well I think a you know
04:36X did it no I think why did you know the conflict there were a lot of theories
04:40that were going around was this drug related it was a life insurance policy yeah I
04:46mean the streets it was when you see the documentary the streets were talking and
04:50the streets took over it was really it was really the first big hip-hop murder and it
04:54was unprecedented and that street talk really drowned out the investigation well
05:01let me pause you right there for a second because I want to bring in Orville Orville
05:04you are a childhood friend of Jam Master Jay yeah we met in band class did you so so
05:11tell us about just that experience well I mean it's funny because we met in music
05:17class and I played I was going from elementary school to junior high school so in
05:24now Nate in Hollis everybody went to the same school the same elementary school same junior
05:28high school so when I came into 192 we call the deuce which is on Hollis Avenue I went to
05:35band class and my music teacher from elementary school was the music teacher so as soon as he see me
05:41he was like you're playing drums and guess who was the drummer Jam Master Jay so he told Jay to
05:46give me the drumsticks so now I'm in Hollis Jay's almost running Hollis even as a kid and I got to
05:53take the sticks out his hand and he told Jay you're a chubby kid you're gonna play tuba so it so I took the
06:00sticks out his hand plus he made him play tuba and and from that time that me and Jay's hands touched with
06:06those sticks our lives paralleled from there he became Jam Master Jay at Run DMC I eventually became
06:15head of marketing for Adidas for 16 years in the music business anybody here from New Orleans I made
06:22a record called trigger man so anytime here all right all right all right that's me so but little known
06:32in fact Jam Master Jay when I made the record I went to his house and and he told me to put the Irish
06:38spring whistle so Jam Master Jay has a little bit of trigger man in it so so so so we were just friends
06:46and then after that then I worked with him in the Adidas and I was actually on my way to the studio the day he got
06:54killed yeah so this documentary really hits you in a personal way oh super personal yeah um tell me
07:02about just briefly your feelings about Jam Master Jay when that happened well you know it's been that
07:09the mural you saw the last mural I actually put put that up 20 years ago so I sort of know the timeline
07:17of this whole thing and it's been the story has been told in many ways and I'm sort of one of the guys
07:23in the neighborhood that can calm everybody down as far as let's see what happens because other reporters
07:30came into the neighborhood and told the story in a way that somebody got shot at right because they
07:37made him talk too much and when Dollar came she came to a friend of mine from the neighborhood that
07:43me and him was good friends and the way Dollar wanted to tell the story I thought was perfect meaning
07:49the truth because in our neighborhood all we want is the truth like we don't care like to both of the
07:55people that's under arrest one of them was in my car the night Jay died because he was a friend and we
08:03didn't know he had anything to do with it and one of them was standing across the street with the other
08:07500 people standing in Jay's because he lived across the street so it's really a neighborhood
08:13situation and it's a real situation because even the people that are accused are friends you know you
08:22don't did not unfriends because they did this thing so they're still friends and we want to know what
08:27happened but when Dollar came in to tell this story the way she went about it was just the truth and that's
08:33all everybody wants to know as it plays out so I sort of made sure that everybody was okay with it and
08:40let's let's just let this roll and see what happens and and it turned out great turned out more than great
08:47yeah for Emmy non it's great and and I know it's gonna win the Emmy actually so you know that's
08:53another celebration we got four tellies as well oh yeah okay just saying right you should be really
09:03proud of that you know so when we're talking about authenticity certainly there was authenticity on how
09:10Darla approached you there was authenticity in terms of just the truth that's what you wanted
09:16um let's delve a little deeper besides the story of what happened um how you guys really put this
09:22doc together you know even from addressing the NYPD because as you guys were saying there were so many
09:28stories that were out there it was this person it was that um but the NYPD also received a lot of
09:34criticism to say hey you aren't doing your job and it's because this guy is black and it's because he's
09:40a rapper that we're not giving this the attention that it deserves but you guys had to address that
09:45and I think later in the documentary you found that it was really what it really came down to there
09:51weren't enough facts in the case to actually bring this to a jury can you talk about navigating that
09:57space and dispelling certain myths when it came around to his death well again it's not over yet you know
10:06the two guys are about to go to trial so again it was basically what we you know and everybody handled
10:15the hood usually knows what happened and when I say what happened maybe not who did it but it's not
10:20that story and it's not that story so so again just as dollars documentary was seeking the truth
10:29we are seeking the truth like again we want to know what happened why is Jay dead and just really
10:38quickly about the NYPD so in the story that the context of the story for me there were two prevailing
10:46things so there was the basic just setting the record straight because you really had to untangle all
10:54of the different myths and theories and really break them down and we had did a really good job with our
10:59graphics team at WLS in Chicago really helped us helped us do the wonderful animations that we had
11:05to just really lay it out for for our viewers um but you so just first of all just untangling that web
11:11because it's so murky after 18 years and and through a new lens which is what cold cases their how that's
11:21how they approached anyway right so I want to at least just get the facts right but from a social
11:25justice perspective this is what I face have faced for over 20 years as a reporter across this country
11:31you have a roadblock between the street code the no snitching code and address in your dog yes it's
11:44really important from a social justice perspective and and if I would really encourage you to see the
11:49documentary because you see the impact it has on the family because the people the victims of that
11:53are the family members who yes they've all passed away and so you we had to really touch on why these
12:01cases aren't getting solved because I do want someone in this who watches a documentary whether they know
12:08something about Jam Astrojay or another crime and they never felt like they could come forward to really
12:13see the impact that has on a family we had a the documentary has a really compelling interview with
12:18Jam Astrojay's first cousin and she said it killed his mother his sister and his brother they changed and
12:25they died before they saw any arrest and they saw any justice and it just tore them apart and so there's
12:31a family torn in the middle of this we're seeing unprecedented gun violence across the this country
12:36um a lot of cases remain unsolved and when is someone going to just do the right thing you know and so
12:44that's what really was important to me to touch on that social justice angle as well as dispelling a lot of the
12:51myths and and just leading with the facts and bringing that abc journalistic integrity to a story that's been told from the lens of the
12:59of an of the street well unfortunately we've run out of time but I do have to say quickly uh for you
13:08to know just about how wonderful Darla is besides just doing her job hard every single day uh yeah
13:13she just throws a round of applause but while Darla was putting this together she talked about covid
13:20so that was one thing on how do you create this documentary well we can't be near people I thought
13:25you did an excellent job creatively if you look at the doc and I encourage all of you to see it
13:30but also you were going through personal things you had uh a lot of struggles can you just briefly
13:36talk about that yes so that's why we got the best the director nod for the Emmys because
13:43we sometimes you can really stretch your imagination uh when the the circumstances are strained but basically
13:50my father passed away um at the beginning of covid the week everything shut down
13:55and then when I came back from you know his services in Texas I ended up with a debilitating spinal
14:02condition called spondylolisthesis which basically means your vertebrae moves out of position and I
14:08couldn't walk I was in debilitating neuropathic pain and you know just walking down the hall filming this
14:17in my home was I had to take a breath I had to take a break I had to take a nap so I was in excruciating
14:23pain but as a creative it really channeled my end my energy to a productive place so um that was thank
14:32you for bringing that up well I had to bring that up because again this festival is also about reaching
14:38beyond your comfort zone uh and reaching to the heights of where you want to be and you did it
14:44and I'm just so proud of you and uh you know I just love amplifying your voice today because uh
14:50you're a killer thank you thank you I just want to be like you and I know please please adorable thank
14:57you so much uh you have certainly honored your friend uh you've honored his legacy and uh and kudos to
15:04you for for coming here and saying this is important to reach out to the community to say listen we need to
15:10do this doc to have that that support which allowed our documentary to shine that much more
15:15so thank you for your impact and the things that you've done i appreciate it i appreciate it i love
15:19new orleans they've been holding my record down for like 35 years all right and what and what is it
15:24called again it's called it's called drag rap but drag rolling they changed the name to trigger
15:29man i'm actually bucks can can okay can you give me one line of trigger man the rhymes you're about
15:36to hear our truth mc's names have been changed to protect the innocent they know the record
15:48hey we can pop we can pop in here horrible thank you so much thank you very much congratulations again
15:54for emmy nines thank you so much
16:06thank you
16:18so
16:22you
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