"My experiences have been, from the very beginning, cultural and creative. And my business has been a way of exposing the culture, exposing the artists so that the world could hear and see them." -- Russell Simmons
Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, 1957) is an American entrepreneur, the co-founder, with Rick Rubin, of the pioneering hip-hop label Def Jam, and creator of the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and American Classics.
Russell Simmons is the younger brother of Daniel Simmons, Jr., and he is the older brother of Rev. Joseph Simmons, better known as "Run" of Run-DMC, and son of Daniel Simmons, Sr, a public school administrator and Evelyn Simmons, a New York City park administrator. His brother Daniel Simmons, Jr., is an accomplished abstract artist.
Russell Simmons has been vegan since 1998, and advocates the adoption of practicing Ahimsa and veganism citing animal rights along with the environmental and health benefits.
Since May 2005 he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.
In January 2009 he was named Editor-In-Chief of GlobalGrind.com: The World According To Hip-Hop.
Russell Simmons is the third richest figure in hip-hop, having a net-worth estimate of $340 million.
"Art allows people a way to dream their way out of their struggle.""Art is a way to express yourself and through that you can escape a bad situation.""I try to make my life about service, and hope that one day we can all 'see' a little better because God is with everyone and everywhere.""I want to fight poverty and ignorance and give opportunity to those people who are locked out.""I want to promote poetry to the point where you got all the baldhead kids running around doing poetry, getting the music out of the way and having only words, the spoken word, and then see what happens.""I'm not a politician. I only want to help relieve the suffering in communities, and I want to help people see their community in each other.""I've been blessed to find people who are smarter than I am, and they help me to execute the vision I have.""If you learn late, you pass it on to people so they can learn early. It's a step process.""Judgment of the people in the situation is not helpful. How can you help them is the question.""Last year my wife got a Rolls-Royce.""Look at all the billionaires. If I know 15 billionaires, I know 13 unhappy people.""Poverty and lack of knowledge must be challenged.""The thing about hip-hop is that it's from the underground, ideas from the underbelly, from people who have mostly been locked out, who have not been recognized.""Well, it's the last step of the civil rights movement: You know, wrap your hands around some money, right?"
Simmons met model Kimora Lee in November 1992 at New York's fashion week. They dated for six years and married on December 20, 1998 on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy. Officiating was Russell's brother, the Reverend Run, now an ordained minister. They have 2 daughters together, Ming Lee (born 2000) and Aoki Lee (born 2002). Before the couple's divorce, they owned a 4-acre, 49,000 Square Foot, 10-bedroom marital home is located in Saddle River, New Jersey and it includes both indoor and outdoor pools, a wine cellar and a movie theater. Just down the road is the home of his brother, Joseph Simmons, a.k.a. Rev Run. In March 2006, the couple announced their separation. Their divorce finalized in January 2009. They would continue to work together on big Phat Farm and Baby Phat clothing lines. As of January 2009 Russell began dating Sports Illustrated model Julie Henderson.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Simmons joined 22 other top executives in the apparel and home fashions industry to form Fashion Delivers Charitable Foundation, Inc. to unify the apparel and home fashions industry to donate new products to help needy individuals and families who fell victim to one of the USA's worst natural disasters. In supporting the new charity, Phat Farm underwrote a t-shirt design contest with 100% of the proceeds going to Fashion Delivers.
In May 2009, Simmons was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Slavery Memorial at the United Nations to Honor the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Simmons is a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and a supporter of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, which as established to ensure that any child in America who wants to learn and practice TM can do so.
Def Jam became just one piece in Simmons' corporation, Rush Communications, which included a management company, a clothing company called Phat Farm, a movie production house, television shows such as Def Comedy Jam, a magazine and an advertising agency. His nephew Jamal "Redrum" Simmons and his group Flatlinerz released the highly controversial album U.S.A. in 1994 on Def Jam but was dropped from the label soon after. Simmons sold his stake in the record company for $100 million to Universal Music Group in 1999. The up-and-coming component of Rush Communications is the sneaker company Run Athletics, which was started in 2003, a company that produces the Legacy and Arthur Ashe shoes.and has a book with def jam
Simmons is the subject and executive producer of Running Russell Simmons a docu-reality television series premiering November 2, 2010 on Oxygen.
Recently, Simmons brought his show Def Poetry to Broadway as a live show, earning awards for the youthful and multicultural cast.
Simmons' Internet project 360degreeshiphop.com was a commercial failure and resulted in a highly publicized bankruptcy.
Simmons, in partnership with a financial institution,Unifund, released a line of re-loadable Visa debit cards aimed at consumers who would otherwise have problems obtaining a credit card account. These prepaid cards include the RushCard and the Baby Phat RushCard.
In July 2006, Simmons, in addition to other members of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, was named a Goodwill Ambassador of CISRI-ISP. According to the press release, Simmons' appointment will help "launch an awareness campaign utilizing hip-hop as a vehicle to address war, poverty and HIV/AIDS, in support of the UN Millennium Development Goals, as well as the CISRI-ISP fight against severe poverty and malnutrition. On August 24, 2006, Simmons hosted a reception in support of Republican United States Senate candidate from Maryland, Michael Steele. In December 2006, Simmons was criticized for claims that he made following a tour organized by De Beers, of Botswana's Jwaneng mine, one of the world's richest diamond mines. This was part of a nine-day, three-country trip through Africa. Some expressed concern that this was part of a larger public relations effort organized by De Beers to counter expected controversies following the release of the movie Blood Diamond. Simmons' response was that he felt too much focus had been put on "conflict diamonds" and that his job was "to take what's good and make it better".
Simmons has since gained attention by calling for the removal of the words 'nigga', 'bitch' and 'ho' from the "clean" radio edited versions of rap songs.
In July 2007, Simmons, frustrated that the Howard Stern Show would not book him as a guest to promote his recent book, vented on the Jay Thomas radio show by calling Howard Stern a nigger and bad mouthing Stern show producer Gary Dell'Abate. When Stern heard this, he called Simmons a hypocrite for using the word nigger and immediately booked Simmons for the show on July 24, 2007, to talk about it. The two are now friends.
In 2007, it was rumored that Simmons met in Detroit with filmmaker, producer, entertainment business consultant Dionciel Armstrong to discuss his plans to buy a stake in Armstrong's Rap Files Enterprises, Inc., which produces a monthly newspaper, DVD series, and Internet video magazine, to produce a "Nigga Free" publication. The two have plans to partner in film, business, and publications in the future.
In October 2008, Simmons conducted an entrepreneur competition entitled "Race to BE" in New York.
In March 2007, Gotham Books announced the publication of Simmons' new book Do You! 12 Laws To Access The Power In You To Achieve Happiness And Success. The book is co-written with Chris Morrow and features an introduction by Donald Trump.
