Russell Simmons

Born: October 4, 1957 in Queens, NY

Country: United States

Russell Simmons can be called the father of the hip hop entrepreneur. His story begins like a lot of young black men in todays society. He was a street hustler, then a party promoter, before becoming an artist manager. Once in the music business he realized that if you want to get your product out there you have to do it yourself. So that mentality brought us Def Jam Records and many other Simmons companies. He also is one of the reasons we have so many hip hop entrepreneurs today(Puff,Master P., Damon Dash,etc.). Russell's business empire is values today in the $500 million area and he continues to expand his wealth, power and influence into the political arena with the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) .

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Shawn "Jay Z" Carter - 06-05-05 11:16