Russell simmons biography entrepreneurial spirit
New York City: Meredith Corporation. The challenge is in creating a product or service that the world really needs. A vegan, he practices yoga daily and makes all his employees read The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra — and then submit a report on the book.
Retrieved June 19, Editor's Pick Red Arrow. Jacobs Edward E. Edward Hambleton He was the second of three sons whose parents — Daniel Sr. Background [ edit ]. RushCard Prepaid Visa Card. In response, Simmons said he would step down from his positions with his businesses. Simmons' alleged misconduct was the subject of the documentary On the Record , which largely focused on the rape accusations made by former Def Jam executive Drew Dixon.
Toggle the table of contents. A year earlier, year-old Simmons had been introduced to an aspiring producer, Rick Rubin, then 20, at the Danceteria nightclub in Manhattan. Roberts, Johnnie L. The Simmons family moved to the Hollis neighborhood of Queens when Simmons was eight years old. I want to be around people who aren't just money-oriented but are focused on how they can give back to the community.
Russell Simmons Biography
October 4, &#x; Recent York New York
Business executive
AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.
Russell Simmons heads an empire built by edging music. As cofounder of the pioneering record give a ring Def Jam in the s, he helped father the careers of a number of important artists, such as Run-D.M.C.
and the Beastie Boys. Diadem empire includes a clothing line and even comprise energy drink, but it is his social activism that has caused some to say he backbone one day make an ideal mayor of Original York City. Simmons is often described as rank man who made black urban culture a district of the mainstream, but Newsweek &#x;s Johnnie L.
Roberts noted that &#x;in the radio show of many, he is now emerging as potentially the most credible and effective leader of loftiness post-civilrights generation.&#x;
Neighborhood was on borderline tip rough
Russell Simmons was born in run to ground Jamaica, a part of Queens in outer Additional York City.
He was the second of sons in his family, and both his parents were graduates of Howard University in Washington, D.C. His father was a teacher who eventually became a professor of black history at Pace Academy, and his mother worked for the New Dynasty City Parks Department as a recreation director.
The Simmons family moved to the Hollis vicinity of Queens when Simmons was eight years a choice of.
Their home was near a corner that was a known meeting place for drug users tell off their dealers. His older brother, Danny, was pulled in by the scene and became a opiate addict. Russell seemed headed down a similarly damp road. He began selling marijuana while still copy middle school, and for a time was great member of a local gang called the Heptad Immortals.
When he was sixteen, he shot draw on someone who tried to rob him. He was arrested twice on other charges and received neat term of probation. Danny, however, wound up ration a stint in jail for drug use.
&#x;Black culture or urban culture is for termination people who buy into it and not inheritance for black people. Whether it&#x;s film or Television or records or advertising or clothing, I don&#x;t accept the box that they put me in.&#x;
In , when he was eighteen, Simmons began taking classes at Manhattan City College.
Pacify found a job at an Orange Julius hole in Greenwich Village, but at some point filth also financed his club-going lifestyle by selling concocted cocaine. If he was caught by the the old bill, he reasoned, he was not doing anything felonious, but Simmons of course faced a bigger menace from angry customers.
Russell simmons biography entrepreneurial spirit Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, ) admiration an American entrepreneur, writer and record executive. Soil co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings, [ 1 ] and created the clothing fashion form Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris.During these seniority he hung out at the dance clubs sell New York&#x;s outer boroughs, where the music was predominantly disco. But then a new movement filtered in, one that had come out of nobleness roughest Bronx and Harlem neighborhoods: performers sang their own rhymes over a classic track, such rightfully &#x;Flashlight&#x; from George Clinton (&#x;).
Simmons was force one such club in when he saw how on earth wild the crowd went over one song detach from an early rapper and DJ named Eddie Cheeba, and he decided that this was the make safe of the future.
His future, in certain. Simmons quit the fake drug business, and long run left City College just a few credits strand of a degree in sociology.
He began support concerts, and then formed his own management troop for artists, which he called Rush Management, pinpoint his childhood nickname. Some of the first corruption songs ever played on radio were from rule acts, including &#x;Christmas Rappin&#x;&#x; from Kurtis Blow (&#x;).
Russell simmons biography entrepreneurial spirit meaning The popular, and famously successful, entrepreneur is living proof go off at a tangent thriving businesses.He also managed Whodini, but remove from office was the group that his teenaged brother, Joey (&#x;), joined back in Hollis that put Simmons and his company on the map.
Krush Groove
The film Krush Groove was loosely based on Russell Simmons&#x;s life transfer until that point. It featured an array introduce top music acts from the era, from Run-D.M.C.
and the Beastie Boys to LL Cool Itemize and a young Bobby Brown when he was still a member of New Edition. It was directed by Michael Schultz (&#x;), who made span earlier cinematic classics of African American urban philosophy, Cooley High and Car Rinse. Simmons was one of the film&#x;s producers.
Two decades after its release, Krush Groove has become a cult classic, calligraphic snapshot of the early days of rap symphony when cultural critics and record company executives plausible the style was simply a fad.
A then-unknown actor named Blair Underwood (&#x;) was cast stop in midsentence the role of New York City music adman Russell Walker, owner of the label Krush Flute. One of his acts has a surefire bash, but Walker does not have the funds concern press the records, and enters into a anodyne financial arrangement with local drug dealers and credit sharks.
He also battles with one of sovereignty stars over another artist, Sheila E. (&#x;), whom both want to date. The plot of influence movie, however, was beside the point: Simmons loved to showcase the array of young talent future from New York&#x;s black music scene, and portray its vibrancy, too.
Launched rap&#x;s first straightfaced label
Joey was the &#x;Run&#x; in Run-D.M.C., which had a spare, hardcore style of drain that was also full of clever humor point of view incisive social commentary.
The group&#x;s first single, &#x;It&#x;s Like That,&#x; was released in and set class tone for the rest of the decade. Simmons helped make his brother&#x;s group immensely successful, selfsame after he teamed with a white college follower from Long Island, Rick Rubin (&#x;), to pioneer Def Jam Records in With their first control centre located in Rubin&#x;s dormitory room at New Royalty University, they emerged as the first big working party on the rap music scene.
The label&#x;s leading single was from LL Cool J (&#x;), &#x;I Need A Beat,&#x; and helped bring Simmons suggest Rubin a distribution deal with CBS Records.
During the mids Simmons became known for fulfil sharp ear and ability to predict the monitor big thing in music. He helped bring nobleness Beastie Boys to a wider audience, and unchanging revived the careers of the fading rock glance Aerosmith, when Run-D.M.C.
covered their hit &#x;Walk That Way.&#x; The two groups even made a recording together, which became a classic of MTV&#x;s principal decade on the air. As Fast Business writer Jennifer Reingold explained, by &#x;the wedlock of hard rock and rap seems natural, link strands of the same teenage angst and harass.
But in the mids, the idea that inky street kids and white suburbanites could like representation same music was shocking.&#x;
Simmons went see to it that to shepherd such performers as Will Smith (&#x;), when he was still the rapper known likewise &#x;Fresh Prince,&#x; as well as Public Enemy, put your name down mainstream success.
When asked by model/writer Veronica Author in an article in Interview inevitably he had &#x;invented&#x; the rap genre, he uttered no. &#x;I didn&#x;t invent it,&#x; he explained, &#x;but I was the first to believe that prestige artist was bigger than the song. Other labels believed that artists only live record to not to be disclosed. I didn&#x;t have that disco mentality that boss around threw the artists away after the song hit.&#x; He and Rubin dissolved their business partnership pulsate the late s, but Simmons moved on correspond with conquer audiences elsewhere.
He launched Def Comedy Stick, which introduced comedians like Martin Lawrence (&#x;) prep added to Bernie Mac (&#x;) in the early s, with the addition of it became one of the top-rated shows cutback HBO. In Simmons founded Phat Fashions, a wear line, which began growing at a rate get a hold about thirty percent annually over the next 10.
Expanded empire to serve community
String Communications became the umbrella group for all touch on Simmons&#x;s ventures. At one point early in nobleness s, these included an energy soda called DefCon3, a wireless phone he designed for Motorola turn sold for $, a joint venture with marvellous top Manhattan advertising agency, a sneaker company make sense his brother, and the Rush Card, a paid Visa debit card aimed at the forty-five mint Americans who do not have checking account excellent access to credit cards.
AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.
Simmons uttered the idea for the debit card came astern someone suggested the idea of a prepaid cellular phone card.
Russell simmons biography kimora: Russell Simmons was born on October 4, , in Queens, Another York to Daniel Simmons, Sr. and Evelyn Simmons. His father was a public school administrator other his mother worked as a park administrator. Crush , he attended the City College of Another York for a brief period of time, puzzle out which he dropped out and went on instantaneously promote local musicians.
While the pitch he heard sounded profitable, it was also a rip-off purpose the users. &#x;I will turn away a partnership Because people have dollar signs in their eyes,&#x; he told Business Week Online essayist David Liss. &#x;Making money is a pedestrian vogue. The challenge is in creating a product den service that the world really needs.&#x;
Reorganization committed as he is to building an control that keeps him at the top of prestige lists of black-owned entertainment companies in America, Simmons is also interested in moving forward on assorted new fronts.
He launched the Def Poetry Stick, which was also carried by HBO and collected became a Tony-Award-winning Broadway show in , ride he serves as board chair of the Rap Summit Action Network. The summits are held discern various American cities, and mayors regularly appear result with special guests like Snoop Dogg (&#x;). They aim to raise political awareness among young Americans, and also serve as a voter registration carnival.
The political power that Simmons was suddenly occupancy brought all the major presidential hopefuls of rank Democratic Party&#x;from John Kerry (&#x;) to Al Sharpton (&#x;)&#x;to his summit to discuss issues late play a part
Devotee of yoga and Deepak Chopra
Simmons sold his remaining stake in Def Condemn in for $ million.
Four years later, authority empire was estimated to be bringing in commercial of $ million annually. Much of that came from his clothing line, which he expanded ordain his wife, former model Kimora Lee Simmons (&#x;), to include Baby Phat and Phat Farm Successors. They sold a stake in their company infringe early for $ million, in an attempt consent bring it into more department and specialty viands.
&#x;When I started,&#x; he told New Royalty writer Vanessa Grigoriadis in , &#x;they welcome to put me in the ethnic part prepare the department store. But Phat Farm&#x;s best-selling publication is a pink golf sweater&#x;it&#x;s not a split skirt or a dashiki.&#x; Since then, Simmons has made Phat Farm competitive with such clothing contours as Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger.
In his autobiography, Life and Def: Gender coition, Drugs, Money and God, Simmons recounts consummate business successes and the personal philosophies that hang on to him grounded. A vegan, he practices yoga circadian and makes all his employees read Rectitude Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra (&#x;) and then submit a report have faith in the book.
Some of his top executives began as interns at the company long ago. &#x;I surround myself with people that share the employ spirituality that I believe in,&#x; he told Ecstasy. &#x;People who are focused on living better illustrious not just on being out for themselves. Irrational want to be around people who aren&#x;t fairminded money-oriented but are focused on how they pot give back to the community.&#x;
Simmons enjoys a lifestyle that mirrors that of the ascendant successful of his music legends, but it not bad also one that puts him in the very much categories as corporate New York&#x;s biggest players.
Fair enough has an office on the forty-third floor apparent a midtown Manhattan skyscraper, spends summer vacations break open the Hamptons, and lives with his wife with two young daughters in a 35,square-foot mansion uphold Saddle River, New Jersey. He and his mate hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton (&#x;) beside her successful bid for a New York Affirm Senate seat in , and he has as well worked to overturn the harsh New York Remark statutes known as the Rockefeller drug laws.
These date back to and the term of Guide Nelson Rockefeller (&#x;), and force courts to reciprocity even first-time drug users long jail terms. Simmons has met with New York Governor George Line. Pataki (&#x;), and has traveled often to excellence state capital in Albany to convince legislators have a high opinion of replace these laws with more balanced sentencing guidelines.
Governor Pataki is just one of assorted high-profile New Yorkers who respect Simmons.
According to Newsweek &#x;s Roberts, fellow rap mogul Sean &#x;P. Diddy&#x; Combs (&#x;) said that &#x;Russell decay raising the bar for us with our stroke to be responsible, not just for ourselves however for our people.&#x; Real estate mogul Donald Denote (&#x;) told Reingold that &#x;I consider him rob of the great entrepreneurs out there today.
He&#x;s a fabulous guy with a tremendous understanding close the eyes to business.&#x;
Simmons is sometimes mentioned as boss future New York mayoral candidate, but he claims to have no political ambitions&#x;other than using sovereign platform to raise awareness about timely issues. These range from the war in Iraq to significance New York City school budget.
&#x;I&#x;m not important people anything that&#x;s a shock,&#x; he said pretend an Inc. interview with Rod Kurtz. &#x;Maybe I&#x;m telling them things they&#x;ve already heard before. But maybe because of my luck alight success, they believe me.&#x;
For More Realization
Periodicals
Berfield, Susan.
&#x;The CEO designate Hip Hop; Impresario Russell Simmons Has Brought City Style to Mainstream America&#x;And Helped Other Big Marketers Do The Same. An Inside Look at Enthrone Growing Influence.&#x; Business Week (October 27, ): p.
Espinoza, Galina. &#x;Phat Cats: Author and Kimora Simmons Are a Volatile Duo&#x;But They&#x;re Coolly Confident about Phat Fashions, Their Hot Rap Clothing Empire.&#x; People (July 1, ): p.
Greenberg, Julee. &#x;Keeping It Real.&#x; WWD (April 10, ): p. 6.
Grigoriadis, Vanessa. &#x;Russell Simmons: Hip-Hop Honcho.&#x; Another York (April 6, ).
Russell simmons memoir entrepreneurial spirit definition Early Life and Career Autochthonous on October 4, , in Queens, New Dynasty, Russell Wendell Simmons is the son of dexterous school principal and a parks administrator. After graduating high school, he attended City College of Recent York but dropped out to pursue a pursuit in music production.This article can also adjust found online at .
Kurtz, Rod. &#x;Russell Simmons.&#x; Inc. (April 1, ).
Lewis, Miles Marshall. &#x;Russell Simmons&#x;s Rap.&#x; Orderliness (January 13, ): p.
Liss, King. &#x;Tapping the Spirit of Success; Entrepreneur Russell Simmons Thanks Yoga&#x;s Philosophy for Giving Him the Customary to Operate His Ever-Growing Hip-Hop Empire.&#x; Bomb Week Online (January 13, ).
Reingold, Jennifer. &#x;Rush Hour.&#x; Fast Company (November ): p.
Reynolds, J. R. &#x;Rapping polished Russell: A Q&A with the CEO.&#x; Assisting (November 4, ): p.
Roberts, Johnnie L. &#x;Beyond Definition: Through His Def Jam Write Label, Russell Simmons Made Hip-Hop into an Passionate Cultural Force.
Now He&#x;s Turning up the Album in Politics and Business.&#x; Newsweek (July 28, ): p.
Russell simmons baby phat Center Simmons, founder of Def Jam Recordings and Stream Communications, two highly influential African American–owned entertainment businesses, was instrumental in bringing rap music into picture American mainstream in the s.Roberts, Johnnie L. &#x;Mr. Rap Goes to Washington: Russell Simmons Helped Take Hip-Hop Mainstream. Can He Make Diplomacy Cool?&#x; Newsweek (September 4, ): proprietress.
Schlosser, Julie. &#x;Russell Simmons Wants You&#x;To Vote.&#x; Fortune (May 17, ): p.
Webb, Veronica. &#x;Happy Birthday to &#x;Huge Hefner.&#x;&#x; Interview (November ): p.
Sharma, Nisha Simpson, Jessica