Russell Simmons: Biography from Answers.com Mobile

Russell Simmons

business owner; founder; music producer

Personal Information

Born c. 1957; raised in Hollis, Queens, New York City; son of Daniel Simmons (a public school attendance supervisor); married Kimora Lee, 1998; children: Ming Lee, Aoki Lee.
Education: City College of New York, attended.

Career

Co-founder and owner of Def Jam Records and Rush Productions, 1985-; owner of Rush Artist Management; founded Rush Communications, 1990; launched Phat Fashions, 1992; started producing Def Comedy Jam for HBO, 1991; founded Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, 1995; founded Def Pictures with producer Stan Lathan, 1995; director of music videos; published autobiography, Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money and God, Crown, 2001; organized Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, 2002; launched Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on HBO and on Broadway, 2002; launched jewelry line, 2005; founded Russell Simmons Music Group, 2005.

Life's Work

The explosive entry of rap music onto the national music scene in the late 1980s was greatly due to the efforts and vision of rap producer and artist manager Russell Simmons. As co-owner and founder of the rap label Def Jam Records and as head of Rush Artist Management, Simmons, according to Nelson George in Essence, took "rap music, an often misunderstood expression of inner-city youth, and ... established it as one of the most influential forms of Black music." Dubbed by the media as the "impresario" and "mogul" of rap, Simmons began his career as a fledgling promoter of a new breed of street music, and worked his way up to the helm of a multimillion-dollar entertainment company--complete with its own film and television division.

Simmons grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. As a youth he became involved with a street gang. In the mid-1970s Simmons enrolled at the Harlem branch of City College of New York, where he studied sociology. It was during this time that he became aware of rap music. He saw rappers as they converged in parks and on street corners, taking turns singing rap songs to gathering crowds. These crowds, as Maura Sheehy noted in Manhattan, Inc., found "their power in dancing and dressing styles of the moment; in mimicking the swaggering, tougher-than-leather attitude; and by worshiping their street 'poets.'"

Simmons saw in rap enthusiasts a vast audience that the recording industry had not tapped into. So he left his college studies and began tirelessly promoting local rap artists, producing recordings on shoestring budgets and conducting "rap nights" at dance clubs in Queens and Harlem. In 1984 he teamed up with another aspiring rap producer, Rick Rubin, to form Def Jam Records. The company produced music by new rap groups including Simmons's brother, Joseph's, group, RUN-DMC. CBS Records agreed to distribute Def Jam's records and within three years, Def Jam albums such as the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill, L. L. Cool J.'s Bigger and Deffer, and Run-DMC's Raising Hell dominated the black music charts.

Simmons has been described as the "Berry Gordy of his time," comparing him to the man who brought the crossover black Motown sound to pop America in the 1960s. Yet Simmons took a fundamentally different approach. According to Sheehy in Manhattan, Inc., "Like Gordy, Simmons is building a large, diverse organization into a black entertainment company, only Simmons's motivating impulse is to make his characters as 'black' as possible." Simmons was insistent on presenting rap images that are true to the tough urban streets from which rap arose. As a result, his groups donned such recognizable street garb as black leather clothes, high-top sneakers, hats, and gold chains. "In black America, your neighbor is much more likely to be someone like L. L. Cool J or Oran 'Juice' Jones than Bill Cosby, " Simmons explained in the New York Times. "...A lot of the black stars being developed by record companies have images that are so untouchable that kids just don't relate to them. Our acts are people with strong, colorful images that urban kids already know, because they live next door to them."

As the manager for all Def Jam acts Simmons has made the authenticity of Def Jam artists a top priority. "Our artists are people you can relate to," he told Interview. "Michael Jackson is great for what he is--but you don't know anybody like that. The closest Run-DMC comes to a costume is a black leather outfit.... It's important to look like your audience. If it's real, don't change it."

Some critics have found the image of rappers disturbing. "It is the look of many rap artists--hard, belligerent, unassimilated, one they share with their core audience--that puts many folks on edge," noted George. While some objected to Public Enemy's logo of a black teen in the scope of a police gun, Simmons explained in George that the logo was representative of how many black teenagers feel--like "targets that are looked down upon." Simmons added, "Rush Management identifies with them [black teenagers]. That's why we don't have one group that doesn't look like its audience."

The lyrics and antics of some male rap artists have also infuriated women's groups, who found misogynistic messages in many songs and stage acts. Also, public officials have occasionally brought charges of lewdness against some rappers in concert. Despite the controversial nature of many rap lyrics, Simmons refused to censor the content of his rap groups' songs. He told George, "rap is an expression of the attitudes of the performers and their audience."

When critics charged that rap artists were not positive role models for many black youths, Simmons countered these attacks, explaining that many of their listeners are growing up in the same environments the artists spoke about. "If you take a look at the pop cultural landscape or the black political landscape now, there aren't a lot of heroes," he told the New York Times. "If you're a 15-year-old black male in high school and look around, you wonder what you can do with your life. (Rappers) opened up a whole new avenue of ambition. You can grow up to be like (them). It's possible."

With the success of his record label, Simmons decided to expand his business interests. He created his own clothing line, entitled Phat Pharm, and launched the Def Comedy Jam tours as well as the Def Poetry Jam tours. In 1998 he began production of a syndicated television series, Oneworld's Music Beat with Russell Simmons. The magazine-style program served as a showcase and information bed for hip-hop culture as a whole. "Black culture is universal," he told Billboard. "This show won't be targeted just to blacks. I want this show to be inclusive; it will be for everyone who embraces young black culture." With these new endeavors, Simmons brought hip-hop culture to a wider audience.

In 2000 Universal Music Group purchased Simmons's share of Def Jam for more than $100 million. That same year, Simmons launched a hip-hop website, 360hiphop.com, a venture intended to fill some of the void in urban radio. "There's no community voice that says what [and who] supports the community now that we have [top 40/rhythm-crossover radio]," he told Billboard. However, Simmons sold the site to BET.com by the end of the year.

Although divested from 360hiphop.com, Simmons still acted as a voice of the community. In 2000 he organized a Hip-Hop Summit. The summit attracted many political and religious leaders including Maxine Waters and Minister Louis Farrakhan. Those in attendance at the summit discussed such issues as conflict resolution for artists and greater efforts at accountability for hip-hop's social, political, and economic impact.

In 2005, Simmons reorganized Def Jam Records into a joint venture with Island Def Jam. The new company is called Russell Simmons Music Group and planned to debut with albums from Reverend Run and Buddafly. In the same year, he and his wife Kinora Lee founded a fine-jewelry company, called the Simmons Jewelry Co.

Simmons wed Kimora Lee, longtime girlfriend and host of Oneworld's Music Beat, in 1998. The couple had a daughter, Min. Simmons's autobiography, Life and Def, was slated for release in late 2001. Both family and literary endeavors further broadened Simmons list of duties, but Simmons has always embraced diverse people and projects as not only the spice of life, but the very definition of hip-hop. He told Billboard, "Hip-hop represents the greatest union of young people with the most diversity--all races and religions--that people have felt in America."