Russell Simmons

Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, 1957) is an American business magnate. The Chairman and CEO of Rush Communications cofounded the hip-hop music label Def Jam and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. Simmons most recently launched All Def Digital, an original content channel on YouTube with over a million subscribers. Simmons has been described as the third richest figure in hip hop, having a net-worth estimate of $340 million in 2011.

Early life and education

Simmons was born and raised in Queens, New York. His father is a public school administrator and his mother is a New York City park administrator. His brothers are painter Daniel Simmons, Jr., and Rev Run of Run-DMC.

In 1975, after graduating from August Martin High School, Simmons briefly attended the City College of New York in Harlem where he met a young DJ/Bboy, Kurt Walker who would influence him to join in on this new phenomenon called Hip Hop.

In 2014, Claremont Lincoln University awarded Russell Simmons an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Humane Letters for his work as chairman of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and for promoting mindfulness, compassion and interreligious collaboration in the public sphere.

Running Russell Simmons

Running Russell Simmons is an American reality television series on Oxygen that premiered on November 2, 2010. The series chronicles the lives of Russell Simmons and his assistants as they manage his business deals, family life and party planning.

Cast

Episodes

References

Simmons

Simmons may refer to:

Business

Education

See also

Russell

Russell may refer to:

People

Places

Australia

Canada

New Zealand

Solomon Islands

United States of America

Hip hop

Hip hop or hip-hop is a sub-cultural movement that formed during the early 1970s by African-American and Puerto Rican youths residing in the South Bronx in New York City. It became popular outside of the African-American community in the late 1980s and by the 2000s became the most listened-to musical genre in the world. It is characterized by four distinct elements, all of which represent the different manifestations of the culture: rap music (oral), turntablism or DJing (aural), b-boying (physical) and graffiti art (visual). Even while it continues to develop globally in myriad styles, these four foundational elements provide coherence to hip hop culture. The term is often used in a restrictive fashion as synonymous only with the oral practice of rap music.

The origin of the hip hop culture stems from the block parties of the Ghetto Brothers, when they plugged in the amplifiers for their instruments and speakers into the lampposts on 163rd Street and Prospect Avenue and used music to break down racial barriers, and from DJ Kool Herc at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, where Herc mixed samples of existing records with his own shouts to the crowd and dancers. Kool Herc is credited as the "father" of hip hop. DJ Afrika Bambaataa of the hip hop collective Zulu Nation outlined the pillars of hip hop culture, to which he coined the terms: MCing or "Emceein", DJing or "Deejayin", B-boying and graffiti writing or "Aerosol Writin".