Five Minutes with Russell Simmons

[Editor's Note: This interview appeared originally on CampusProgress.org.]

Russell Simmons, hip-hop entrepreneur and activist, was awarded the Freedom of Speech Award at this month's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen for his groundbreaking Def Comedy Jam series, which was a critical forum for launching young, African-American talent like Dave Chappelle into the mainstream. Presenting the award was Center for American Progress President John Podesta.

Simmons is the co-founder of Def Jam, the pioneering hip-hop label that has been home to Run-DMC, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Redman, Method Man and more. He is now a multimedia mogul, with Def Comedy Jam, Def Poetry Jam (hosted by Mos Def), Phat Farm and Baby Phat clothing lines as well as films like The Nutty Professor joining his empire.

In his spare time, he launched the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) in 2001 to provide an organization that is by and for the hip-hop generation. HSAN engages young people in issues ranging from equal access to quality education, freedom of speech, voter registration, youth leadership, economic literacy and opportunity, and the reformation of New York State 's Rockefeller Drug Laws.

John Podesta sat down with Russell Simmons to talk about youth empowerment, yoga, and who the real gangstas are.

 John Podesta: Def Comedy Jam gave the opportunity to marginalized voices in society--[comedians that] didn't have mainstream audience, and through Def ComedyJam you gave them a mainstream audience. Now, with the success of the whole range of platforms that you provide, have those voices really penetrated the mainstream? Or do we still need to work to get the voices of the marginalized into the mainstream?

Russell Simmons: Well, it's an ongoing process. Of course a lot of work has to be done. But it's good that poor people have the mic. I always say that about rappers -- poor people got the mic. They won't give it back. They say a lot of things that make a lot of people uncomfortable. They're voicing ideas that are not otherwise going to get heard in a big way all over the world. There are so many songs that speak truth to power. And they say things -- although you may not get them right away -- about the poverty, the ignorance in the community, the lack of opportunity in the community -- they speak to all those issues. Songs that people are so offended by -- listen closely. Gangsta rappers, they call them. Not nearly as gangsta as the things that inspire them -- you know, a gangsta government that we operate under.

So things that we take for granted, and the things that we push under the rug, they bring up again, make us reassess them, and think about them. The suffering and the poverty in our communities that's not addressed by our politicians is in the forefront of our culture. So it's good that these poets and rappers can say what they're saying.

JP: One of the things that come through loud and clear through rap music, through the poets, through the comedians is that they are authentic voices -- they really have something to say because they're speaking from personal experience. As you look around the political world today, do you hear anything authentic coming from the political people speaking to people, particularly in communities of color?

RS: I'm not listening that much. You know, I support different candidates at different times -- there's always one better than the other. I like that Andrew Cuomo, for instance, [who] is running for Attorney General. I liked what he said about the death penalty when no one else would say it. I liked that he talked about fighting poverty -- not like most politicians. He might have been a little bit of a young Sargent Shriver, someone who wants to inspire people to break the mold. So I hope he really lives up to that. He's talking about a lot of things that don't poll well.