Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons
Russell Wendell Simmons is an American entrepreneur, producer and author. The Chairman and CEO of Rush Communications, he cofounded the hip-hop music label Def Jam Recordings and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. Simmons had a net-worth estimate of $340 million in 2011...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth4 October 1957
CityQueens, NY
CountryUnited States of America
rap white people
There are poor white people who hear rap music and feel it is about them, because it is. That's why you have an Eminem and a Bubba Sparxxx and rappers like that.
america ballet suffering
Culture in America and everywhere else comes from the suffering, from those who don't want the old ways. They want to bring in the new, whether it's the ballet, when it started, or Shakespeare.
things-in-life hip-hop might
Hip-hop is about tearing down the system to better it, tearing down the system to better themselves. No matter how flimsy it might seem, they always wanted the finer things in life.
thinking artist people
I kind of think that artists throughout history, poets throughout history have been criticized for sharing what's on people's minds and I don't think it's any different now.
jobs thinking artist
I think the artist's job throughout history has been to tell - to say things that people are inspired by.
sex reflection reality
There is a subject - there is a research that says a man thinks about sex every 12 seconds. And so when an artist expresses something that's sexual in music it is a reflection of our reality. If we want that reality changed, then we have to do things that affect the core.
religious ideas kind
There is no religious or any kind of a gender that should separate you from any religious ideas.
practice laughing
You have to learn to laugh all the time. It's a practice of life. It's a practice of happiness.
prayer yoga missing
I don't miss my prayers and I don't miss my yoga. Those things are important to me.
rap thinking artist
I think the rap community always tells the truth. And I think that it's important that we listen to their voices so we can have a roadmap, because artists - almost every single artist in hip-hop, they paint a picture of society that's overlooked. The misogyny, the racism, the violence, the homophobia, these are things that we try to avoid instead of dealing with. All of that I see it so often.
issues long police
There's one overriding issue, namely, that we live in a police state so long as the police get to police themselves. And that is why cops go unindicted.
creating community safe
The best way to protect both the policemen and the community going forward is by creating a system that's just, where everyone feels safe.
rap writing simple
If you want to say something profound, writing from your heartbeat is different than writing from the loud voices you get from music. If they're rapping from noise, it's about robbing people. It's that simple.
mean thinking rapper
I mean people are sexist and racist and homophobic and violent. But I don't think of the rappers as being any more sexist or racist or homophobic than their parents. Certainly less, in all those cases, less homophobic or racist or sexist, and then less gangster than our government. It's stuff that people normally don't speak on, subjects they don't speak on, and ideas they kind of keep to themselves.