Russell Simmons's Rap

Russell Simmons, known for decades as Rush to his friends, is of average height and build for a man his age (45), with a cleanshaven face, bald dome and light complexion. In conversation, he is likely to switch gears from hip-hop culture and Eastern spirituality to politics and rap-industry commerce several times in the span of just ten minutes. He was born in Jamaica, Queens, the son of Howard University graduates, and moved to residential Hollis at 8; dealt marijuana and was very briefly warlord of the 17th Division of the Seven Immortals gang during the 1970s; and eventually attended, then dropped out of, City College a few credits short of a sociology degree.

In the halcyon days of hip-hop, Simmons managed the seminal rap acts Kurtis Blow, Whodini and Run-D.M.C. (his younger brother is Joseph "Run" Simmons, now a reverend) through Rush Management. Shortly thereafter, he founded Def Jam Records out of partner Rick Rubin's New York University dorm room, introducing the likes of L.L. Cool J, the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy to Middle America. His wildly successful clothing line Phat Farm has been in operation since 1992. He is universally regarded as having established the blueprint of the hip-hop multimedia mogul. Russell Simmons is hip-hop.

Or is he? "Russell, as quiet as it's been kept, you are not hip-hop!" begins an open letter circulating on the Internet by rap activist Rosa Clemente--founder of Know Thy Self Productions, a speakers' bureau dedicated to social change and organization of the hip-hop generation. "Where were you when the hip-hop community united over the issue of AIDS, apartheid, police brutality, gun violence, and the bombing of Vieques, Puerto Rico?" she asks. "You were having those fundraisers for Senator Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, and having your summer Hamptons parties hobnobbing with the likes of Donald Trump and Martha Stewart."

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