The two at the front of the stage, clad in their unmistakable black fedoras and Adidas T-shirts, stop rapping, cross their arms and turn toward the man at center stage. The crowd goes crazy as an interlude of cutting and scratching breaks through the drum beat.

No more than a card table, two turntables and a microphone, and the man at center stage wins over another audience. All with a look of absent-minded concentration and a slight ever-present smile on his face.

This wasn’t just one show, Jam Master Jay did it hundreds of times as the DJ of hip hop pioneers Run-DMC. He might have done it hundreds more if he hadn’t been cut short by a gun last week.

Nineteen years before that fateful moment , Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell brought hip hop from the New York streets to the rest of the world as one-third of the first rap faces on MTV and the owners of the first platinum rap album.

In 1984, the group released its self-titled debut, and songs such as “Rock Box” and “Sucker MCs” shook up the rap world with a new style, more focused on the beats and the scratching than on the disco groove of early ’80s contemporaries.

By 1986, the group was on top of its game, releasing the triple-platinum third album, “Raising Hell.” Hard-hitting tracks such as “It’s Tricky” and a remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk this Way” broke the market open for Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys and N.W.A. to take over into the ’90s.

Whether they listen to Run-DMC or not, hip hop and rap artists everywhere have been influenced by the group.

“Run-DMC were hip hop pioneers. They were coming out with stuff before anyone else, doing new things or at least bringing things to the masses,” says Boston rapper Arecee. “It’s upsetting to see, especially with so much positivity around them.”

Arecee, who moved to Boston from his hometown of Ames last summer to pursue his music, grew up bumping A Tribe Called Quest, Ice-T, Del, the Beastie Boys and Ice Cube, but Run-DMC spent time in his stereo as well.

“They were one of the first big true hip hop groups — they were definitely a vital part of hip hop history,” Arecee says. “If [Mizell] weren’t around, things would definitely be different, I just don’t know how. It’s like Chuck D said, these are our Beatles. There’s a lot of truth to that.”

He says that even though he usually sticks to underground hip hop music, Jam Master Jay was someone he admired.

“Somebody like Jam Master Jay, you know — I didn’t even really give a shit about Tupac — everything [Jay] did was positive,” Arecee says. “I’m not aware of anything negative Run-DMC wrote.”

The positivity is apparent in the fans, as well — people from all over the world have offered their thoughts on Run-DMC’s Web site at http://thadweb.com/rundmc/, as well as sites all over the Internet. It wasn’t enough to keep the group together, however, as Run-DMC announced its official retirement on Wednesday.

“We were just on tour with Aerosmith and Kid Rock, and we can’t perform anymore. Nobody wants to see Run and DMC without Jay,” said Joseph “Reverend Run” Simmons at a press conference on Wednesday. “Run-DMC is officially retired. I can’t get out in front of my fans with a new DJ.”

Jason Smolka, owner of hip hop clothing store Urban Attic, 2408 Chamberlain St., says that before Mizell, DJs were often just hired guns.

“He helped to make the DJ more visible,” Smolka says. “With a lot of DJs, their names are not in the group. When you think Run-DMC, you think Jam Master Jay. A lot of groups, when they have a live show, they just bring in a DJ and when they record they use a different one.”

By making his name known, Mizell also brought his art form to the front, Smolka says.

“He was the one guy that was always seen with them. By doing that it made more people realize the fact that the DJ is the foundation,” he says. “A lot of DJs in the beginning didn’t have a lot of equipment, so it was up to the DJ to use a 15-to-20 second sample and keep a song going.”

Though coverage of Run-DMC’s end comes back-to-back with recycled features on the deaths of Tupac and Notorious B.I.G., both Arecee and Smolka say they don’t see reason to link the gangsta lives and deaths of those two with Mizell’s.

“Unfortunately, things like this happen. It’d be very easy to say they are linked and they are similar, but I don’t think this is the case,” Smolka says. “This is an example of life in its grittiest form.”

“The bottom line is it’s sad and I think people need to stop and think about what’s really going on,” Arecee says. “This isn’t an East-West feud, it wasn’t caused by video games, the bottom line is people are just acting ignorant and spreading hate. Just looking at all of these recent beefs surrounding Jam Master Jay’s death — people don’t even stop to think about him.”