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June 6, 2001 - Aside from being one of the most most
powerful people in the Hip-hop industry, Russell Simmons, whom many refer
to as "the Don" of the Rap industry, is a new father and a serious student
of yoga. I spoke
with this candid and outspoken millionaire mogul, minutes after he released
a statement condemning the $7,000 FCC fine thrown at Colorado station
KKMG-FM after their broadcast of a radio-edit version of The Real Slim
Shady. Currently organizing the second
Hip-hop Summit, Russell had much to say:
IO:What is the difference between this summit and
the first one?
The
last summit I hosted, but was not part of - although I am working with
Dave Mays (Source) on this one - was in 1996 where everybody went to Chicago
and they had these issues and they resolved them. We accomplished a lot.
It was a landmark time in hip-hop in regards to the end of the East coast/West
coast war. So I'm hopeful that this one will accomplish a lot. Our intention
is to bring everybody together to first... feel how powerful we
are... and to celebrate the success... but to make clear to everyone what
responsibilities come with that power.
I want to say this because a lot of people have been
[asking] am I intending to clean up rap? I absolutely am not looking to
clean up anything. I think that we've built an amazing and probably
the most powerful cultural influence in America and probably in the entire
history of the music culture... it has become lifestyle. We've brought
all these races together in dialogue. The CNN of the hip-hop generation,
as Chuck D referred to it years ago, was at that point the CNN of the
young Black community... but now its [audience is] 80% non-Black, so now
it's the underground dialogue amongst all young people. Not many
people in hip-hop realize that they are more powerful than the politicians,
and they're more powerful than any other cultural influence and that they
have the power to change the world in any way they decide.
IO: That's pretty radical.
They can do anything that they want. The good news
about the hip-hop community is that they kind of move as an army. They
decide if there's something that they want to talk about they basically
all tomorrow start talking about it and they really move together. So,
I 'm hopeful that this summit will take what we have that is so great
and create a dialogue amongst all races. It's brought all people together.
You know when Run DMC got on MTV the only person that was
Black on MTV was Michael Jackson. He had a
broken nose and had straightened his hair. And Run DMC's first record
was no curls no braids pv [sic] head and still get paid. That was a rhyme
on Run DMC's record. So there was a dramatic difference between Michael
Jackson and normal kids who spoke to young Black America's heart, and
now all young America's heart so these people, now MTV is integrated,
and kids understand each other better... from the trailers to the projects
to Beverly Hills... they all have a dialogue they're sharing an understanding.
Mostly it's about suffering people, a lot of it comes from people who
come from difficult places. This summit is very important to convene to
see what we've done and see where we can go.
IO: Why now? Why 2001?
I saw discuss the
attacks on Rap, we are going to discuss Senator Lieberman's bill, we are
going to discuss Rap profiling and those are issues that we will have
resolve for... because the whole theme of the [summit] is taking back
responsibility. So there [is a] certain... code of ethics that we're going
to agree on as an industry. But if someone asks me if this is a response
to Lieberman's bill I have to be clear. This is absolutely not a response
to Lieberman's bill. It's what we were planning for some time. We've been
having dialogue among the whole industry about... what we're gonna do
to... We've already had this dialogue for a long time. We're going to
make a statement on the 14th at our press conference about how we're going
to market our music. It kind of, in a way, addresses what we will and
won't do regarding marketing, but it just happens that Lieberman's bill
has visibility at this time. It's not a response to his bill. We take
back responsibility. Because it's a billion dollar industry and we feel
that young people don't connect enough - these young people who run the
industry - it's important that they come together and make these decisions.
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