Q&A

GEORGE WAYNE

Russell Simmons: phat and happy

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Only Brooke Astor moves across as many circles in New York City as Russell Simmons, who counts presidents, hip-hoppers, mayors, and industrial magnates as his friends, and who has parlayed Def Jam Records into a massive media-and-clothing empire. As he prepares a new collection of sportswear, Def Jam University, he sounds off about fin de siecle high jinks at Cafe Tabac, his long-ago involvement with drugs, and his new political activism.

George Wayne:Were you at Cafe Tabac the night that Christy Turlington squatted behind the bar?

Russell Simmons: I don't think I was there that night, but I was there many nights with Christy Turlington, and we had a lot of fun. Back then we all drank so much, and she would drink you under the table and be stonefaced, smiling in her Chanel suit.

G.W.It's hard to imagine that Russell Simmons used to sell ganja on 205th Street in Queens.

R.S. Really?

G.W.According to your book. Or is that just tweaked autobiography to add street credibility?

R.S. I did sell fake cocaine.

G.W.It's even harder to imagine that you were addicted not to marijuana, not to cocaine or crack, but to angel dust! When did you become sober?

R.S. When I turned 30.

G.W.And you are not the first person to say that yoga has changed his life.

R.S. I started practicing yoga religiously eight years ago.

G.W.Who was the first rap artist discovered by Russell Simmons?

R.S. Kurtis Blow, whose first single was "Christmas Rappin'," in 1979.

G.W.You founded Def Jam in 1984. What gave you the balls to think you could start your own record company?

R.S. Rick Rubin—who was a member of the Beastie Boys, who I was managing at the time—had this logo, Def Jam, and since I had had so much success managing Run-DMC and Kurtis Blow and Whodini and other rappers, Rick said we should start a label.

G.W.Many of the first inductees into the Hip-hop Hall of Fame will come from the label Def Jam—Run-DMC, the Beastie Boys—but as far as G. W. is concerned, your greatest discovery is LL Cool J.

R.S. That's my man. We just re-signed LL Cool J—still with us after 20 years.

G.W.Def Jam has made about $300 million in 2003 so far. How much of that money goes into your pocket?

R.S. I'm now just the chairman of Def Jam, and they send a little. G.W.A few million?

R.S. That company is owned by Vivendi. Now I only get a bonus. I've discovered that being attached to money is a source of anxiety. It doesn't mean anything.

G.W.One of the quirks of your marriage is that you and your wife have separate fridges.

R.S. That's because I am vegan and she is not. My refrigerator is vegan and hers is not.

G.W. Do you also have separate bedrooms?

R.S. No, we sleep together.

G.W.What about living in the biggest private residence on the East Coast, in Saddle River, New Jersey?

R.S. That's not true at all. It is absolutely not the biggest private residence on the East Coast. It is certainly an excellent, beautiful, well-designed home.

G.W.Tell G. W., do you really think we need a Russell Simmons energy drink? This just sounds like someone's ego run amok.

R.S. It's flying off the shelves, blowing out of the stores. And a big piece of that profit goes toward funding the Hiphop Summit [a Simmons project that uses hip-hop stars to promote political and social reform], so we really do need it. It is necessary; it's about endowment. It's the healthiest of all energy drinks. It contains no ephedra, like the other energy drinks.

G.W.You run a fashion company, Russell, but your personal style leaves a lot to be desired. Russell Simmons is a perfect candidate for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. R.S. Get outta here. What are you talking about, man? I'm wearing the best sportswear in the world—Phat Farm. I'm always fly. My sportswear is always just right and up-to-date. I disagree. G.W. G.W. can't help but ponder the notion that somewhere in his cranium Russell Simmons is cradling the idea of one day becoming the first black governor of the great state of New York—say, circa 2020. Seventeen years from now you will be 62 years old, the perfect age to mount a gubernatorial campaign.

R.S. I don't see that in a million years. I have no political ambitions. G.W.That remains to be seen. Thank you, Mr. Rush.