Philadelphia Music Summit
Saturday May 21, 2005
Russell Simmons Chairman & CEO Rush Communications
Russell Simmons has been instrumental in bringing Hip Hop to every facet of business and media since its inception in the late 1970s: in music with the immensely successful Def Jam Recordings; in television with HBO's "The Def Comedy Jam" and "Russell Simmons Presents
Def Poetry"; on Broadway with the Tony Award winning stage production "Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway"; in the fashion industry with the red hot Phat Farm, Baby Phat, Run Athletics, and Def Jam University clothing lines; in the financial industry with the RushCard and Baby Phat RushCard; in the beverage business with Russell Simmons Beverage Company and its Def Con 3 healthy energy drink; and in the community with Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation and the Hip Hop Summit Action Network.
47 year old Russell Simmons is a native New Yorker who attended City College of New York. His interests extend far beyond the business world, and he spends a great deal of his time and considerable energy working for social, political, and philanthropic causes, pushing hip hop on to new plateaus of power and relevance. In 1995 he, along with his brothers Danny and Joseph Simmons (Rev. Run of Run DMC), founded Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. The organization is dedicated to providing disadvantaged urban youth with significant exposure and access to the arts, as well as offering exhibition opportunities to underrepresented artists and artists of color. Following the historic Hip Hop Summit Russell organized in June 2001, he founded the Hip Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) to harness the cultural relevance of hip hop music as a catalyst for education advocacy and other societal concerns fundamental to the well being of at risk youth throughout the United States. Among HSAN's major initiatives is Hip Hop Team Vote, a 50 city grassroots force that worked throughout 2004 to register and mobilize young voters across the country.
Russell and his ventures are driven by a personal and corporate belief that hip hop is an enormously influential agent for social change, which must be responsibly and proactively utilized to fight the war on poverty and ignorance. Russell and his wife Kimora Lee have two daughters, Ming Lee and Aoki Lee.
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