John Johnson (born December 1, 1963), better known by his stage name Grandmaster Jay, is an American MC/DJ and producer. Over his career, he has been known by several pseudonyms including "MC Master Jay", "Jay Blaze", "The Grand Imperial DJ Prince", and "Jay Blax".

He was crowned the KISS MasterMix Champion two years in a row (1984�1985) and was one of the premier battle emcees of the early hip hop era (www.elbravador.com) . Grandmaster Jay and The Fresh Five (Magic Dee, Dallas B, Tony T, Mr. Ease) held the Southern hip hop scene against such East Coast rappers as Biz Markie, UTFO and Run DMC until the decline of Rap's Golden Era around 1987. In the early days of hip hop, he was one of the first rappers to garner enough street popularity on both the East Coast and the Deep South to attract to the attention of Sugar Hill Records creator Sylvia Robinson. In 1981 he was presented to Ms. Robinson by Angie B (Angie Stone) of the first female rap group, The Sequence after performing at a rap concert in Richmond, Virginia on Aug 16,1981 at Virginia Union University's Hovey Field. It was at this same concert that MC Master Jay was given accolades by The Treacherous Three after performing and winning a rap battle using The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel. By this time he had already formed The Imperial Mix Masters, Virginia's first publicly known rap crew. Ms. Robinson offered Jay a recording contract on the spot. However due to his age this offer was refused by his mother. MC Master Jay continued to perform. His popularity grew and he became known as one of the most popular and talented battle emcees in the VA, MD, DC region and simultaneously in the NYC, NJ area where he spent his summers.

As hip hop continued to grow, so did the opportunities and audiences for Master Jay. As his search for a good show deejay proved fruitless, he began to learn the art of deejaying and rose through those ranks as rapidly as he did an emcee. In 1982 his name was changed to Grandmaster after several concert promoters bestowed this title upon him. Being one of the only deejays who was also an emcee, the tag DJMC was appended to his name. In 1983 new crew was born out of some of the most popular street emcees at the time. In 1983 The Grandmaster Jay and The Fresh Five Emcees dominated the hip hop street scene with their combination of witty rhymes and Jay's turntable shows.

On Nov 5, 1983 Grandmaster Jay became the KISS 96 FM Mastermix Championship Tournament in which he eliminated 189 DJ crews by both rapping and dejaying on what appeared to be 4-6 turntables simultaneously. In an era prior to multitrack recorders and samplers, GMJ demonstrated that was ahead of his time by unveiling a technique that many call the first true mix tape. More significantly on Feb 5, 1984 he deejayed and hosted the Electric Explosion Fresh Fest at The Richmond Coliseum which featured Run DMC, Kurtis Blow, Whodini, The Fat Boys, Captain Rock, Divine Sounds, The New York City Breakers. This was the first hip hop concert to sell out a major arena. It was after this concert that Jay met young Russell Simmons who told him about the new label he was forming called Def Jam. Jay auditioned for Russell in his hotel room at The Holiday Inn on Franklin Street in Richmond, Va with DMC, Whodini, and many others present. Russell said he would choose between Jay and another young man he was listening to by the name of James Todd Smith who went on to become LL Cool J.

Grandmaster Jay traveled to NYC and met with Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin in their Def Jam offices when they were located on Varwick Avenue and returned to Va to await the next steps as his Mastermix recording swept the underground. He was shocked when Run-D.M.C. emerged with Jam Master Jay (which phonetically sounded like Grandmaster Jay). Many of those familiar with GMJ assumed he was JMJ and the popularity grew for both. But it was after Run DMC's meteoric rise via their rap songs that began to illuminate that JMJ was not the GMJ that was so well known for his turntable and rapping skills. In 1987 Grandmaster Jay filed a DBA and copyright for the name Grandmaster Jay but by then the damage had been done. As the Golden Age of hip hop came to a close and gave way to G-Funk and Gangsta rap, this controversy was forgotten as many from this era were moved to the Old School category.

Grandmaster Jay continued to deejay and produce rap songs for many artists and then departed the hip hop scene by enlisting in the US Army in 1990. This event was marked by an on the air live rap battle in October 1990 on WCDE Richmond hosted by Michael Street and El Bravador with DJ Drake and Sir RJ. Grandmaster Jay served in the US military from 1990 through 2005 yet remained active in music all along the way. As hip hop grew and matured into a multi-billion dollar business, he found flashes of greatness along the way. Most notably in 1995 he toured on the Russell Simmons Def College Tour which featured Wu-Tang, Def Squad, Onyx, DJ Enuff, and Sweet T. It was during this tour that GMJ and JMJ spoke of working together with Jay recording on Jam Master Jay's JMJ Label. In 1996 GMJ moved into the field of promoting arena hip hop shows when most shows were relegated to clubs because of fear by venue owners over how violent hip hop had become. Throwing some of the most successful hip hop shows in large venues, Jay gave artists Biggie Smalls, Jay Z, Keith Murray, Chino XL, The Alkoholics, RUN DMC, and Immature the chance to prove so many wrong about the state of real hip hop. In 1996 Grandmaster Jay teamed up with Washington DC go-go rapper/dj DJ Kool. This collaboration resuled in the classic song Let Me Clear My Throat and garnered a contract to Warner Brothers American label which was chaired by none other than Rick Rubin. During their appearance at Hampton, Virginia's WOWI FM's's JamzFest 7, Jay met Phyllis Hyman's niece Sharae. The two kept in touch and in 1997 she asked Jay to come to Loud Records RCA to assist with her artist Yvette Michelle. A meeting with Loud Record's CEO Steve Rifkind resulted in a whirlwind of international shows and two videos. Yvette Michelle thanked Jay in the liner notes of her album My Dream for "teaching her how to perform live." and being her DJ. Yvette was being produced by NYC DJ Funkmaster Flex who took a keen interest in Grandmaster Jay and on Aug 16, 1997 offered him a label deal on his Franchise/RCA Records label. Many artist of that time from SWV to Fatman Scoop requested Jay to work with them in the studio and on the road.

However as Grandmaster Jay's popularity within the music industry grew, many of those around him who were singing his high praises became intimidated. Jay was asked to do deejay events ranging from The Source's Hip Hop Fashion Show to emcee appearances on "Everybody's In Da House", a who's who of Southern emcees produced on J Records. After attending a recording session with Yvette Michele at D&D Studios in Nov 1998, Grandmaster Jay walked away from the music scene altogether and returned to North Carolina. This move effectively ended the career of Yvette Mechele, Loud Records's deal with Franchise, and severed his ties with the publicity arm of his fame, Double Exposure NYC.

Grandmaster Jay did not emerge again until 2003 when he teamed up with Johnny Cabbell and his Hit After Hit Entertainment Group from Atlanta, Georgia. Touring with Crime Mob GMJ established himself securely in the Dirty South hip hop movement. In 2005 GMJ relocated to Atlanta, GA. and then to Cincinnati, Ohio.While there he was invited to join The CORE DJs by North Carolina DJ Ike Geeda. This DJ coalition consisted of mostly new DJs from the Mid-West and South and was being headed up by Tony Neal of Milwaukee. Jay's first encounter with The CORE revealed a bunch of deejays who did not know hip hop history yet managed to build relationships with the major record labels. However since they embraced the role of the deejay, GMJ supported them even going so far as to become a major title sponsor of their 8th DJ Retreat which was held in New Orleans. Yet the CORE's failure to recognize the real deejays that built hip hop in the original markets like VA., DC., NYC,PA. and their failure to open any doors for new artists or talented deejays caused Jay to sever all ties with them in 2009. In 2007 Grandmaster Jay appeared at the 80s Was The Greatest Hip Hop Festival in Richmond, VA. He returned again in 2008 and performed with DJ Kool and Doug E Fresh, Lil Vicious at the Stone Soul Fest held at The Strawberry Downs Complex. In December 2008 he performed as the show deejay for Young Jeezy at the Baltimore Coliseum.


Grandmaster Jay at the Stop The Violence WeekendIn 2009 Grandmaster Jay hosted a Stop The Violence Weekend in Detroit that lasted three days, touched all facets of the community, involved the media, school system, and culminated in The Pioneers of Hip Hop show at the Fox Theatre that featured Sugar Hill Gang, Whodini, Big Daddy Kane, Doug E Fresh and Slick Rick, MC Lyte, and Grandmaster Jay deejaying for KRS One. Photographs of all these events are on constant display as well as samples of Grandmaster Jays rap songs and deejay mixes on his Myspace Page www.myspace.com Today Grandmaster Jay is considered by many to be one of hip hop's most overlooked icons. Even after the murder of Jam Master Jay in 2006, many still get these two confused while others don't even know JMJ is dead, because they only knew and still know GMJ. Grandmaster Jay still performs at major events and in major venues as a constant example to the upcoming. On April 22, 2010 he performed/hosted the Reflection Eternal Tour kickoff with Talib Kweli, Hi-Tek, and J Cole at the Madison Theater in Covington, Kentucky. He was immediately asked by Hi-Tek to join the tour, which he declined.

In February 2011 Grandmaster Jay performed with The Legendary George Clinton and ParliamentFunkadelic. During this show he met the daughter of Brides of Funkenstein's Tamalya "TJ" Evans. Also the niece of legendary bassist Cornell "Boogie" Molson, TJ, already in the studio recording with Molson, invited Jay to appear on her second debut "Shaky Land". Jay and TeeJay collaborated in the studio and under Jay's guidance created a new song,"Shakey Ground" which was released in conjunction with TJ's song with Molson entitled "Paradiso". On May 31, 2011 Grandmaster Jay appeared with George Clinton, Parliament Funkadelic, and TJ Evans at BB Kings in New York City. Jay brought Mr. Cheeks of The Lost Boys