Def to the people

Russell Simmons

It's an empowering feeling to hang up on a man who's worth more than US$300 million.

That man, Russell Simmons, the hip-hop guru, founder of Def Jam records, Phat Farm clothing, and numerous other film, media and business enterprises, has been talking about empowerment when he asks me to "hold on one second".

I hang on for five minutes and then hang up. Who knows if he comes back to finish the chat we were having about another of his hip-hop based inventions, the Def Poetry Jam, a spoken-word show of in-your-face poetry, that starts at AK05 on Wednesday .

Def Poetry Jam grew out of the HBO TV series Def Comedy Jam, which premiered in 1991, where comedians like Jamie Foxx and Chris Rock showcased their work. In 2001, Def Poetry Jam, produced by Simmons and hosted by rapper Mos Def, started on HBO and it also became a Broadway show winning a Tony Award for best special theatre event in 2003.

In the seven minutes we do talk I never get to ask the man, who admits he wants to be hip-hop's first billionaire, what's more important, the money or the music?

From first impressions you'd have to say the money. But as Simmons has said: "It's hard to help the poor if you're one of them."

And there's no denying what Simmons has done for youth culture. Be it partly inspiring Run DMC's rap-rock collaboration with Aerosmith on Walk This Way in 1986, forming Def Jam with producer Rick Rubin, or releasing records by everyone from Public Enemy and the Beastie Boys to the big names of today like Ludacris and Kanye West, Simmons took hip-hop to the mainstream without compromising the rebellious and revolutionary tone of the music. And he's made a fortune out of it.

Along with his mate, legendary rapper Kurtis Blow, Simmons was there at the start. In the mid to late 70s he quit dealing drugs in Queens, New York, and started promoting hip-hop shows. In 1984 he and Rubin set up Def Jam and released LL Cool J's I Need a Beat as the label's first single.

In the beginning the pair had little support from executives at the major record companies who believed hip-hop was a musical whim and not about to be a cultural phenomenon.

"The arrogance of white men is why I'm here today," he told CBS News last year.

Simmons sold his remaining share in Def Jam to Universal Music for a reported US$100 million in 1999 but stayed on as a symbolic chairman.

"Def Jam is the most well-known record label in America. It's like Coca-Cola," he told National Radio during another interview which he also cut short. He had to get to his daily yoga class, you see.

Now, with Def Poetry Jam, he's taken hip-hop to Broadway. But, more importantly, the show gets back to the roots of hip-hop.

Remember, before Simmons ended this interview he was talking about empowerment - a basic value that hip-hop inspires.

"Def Poetry Jam has got to be the most important cultural thing I've been involved in," says the 46-year-old, "because it's inspiring, youthful, and helpful for kids."

"You write [poetry] from silence. Silence is golden. So when you write from silence, then it's all heart. The noise that goes with rap is a distraction. Silence makes you introspective and the poetry is always about something uplifting because that's what's inside. So when you look inside, even if it's a struggle, you find your way out of [that] struggle. Poetry is not about suicide, it's not about robbin' nobody.

"Anytime the [poets] speak they speak about uplifting subjects - it kind of means loving, compassion, giving, and that's what Def poets always do. To me it's a big inspiration to a lot of kids. Def Poetry is the voice of the people who are voiceless."

You can tell Simmons is proud of his poets, including guys like Philadelphia's Black Ice, Korean-American Ishle Park who teaches poetry in prisons, and Palestinian born Suheir Hammond.

The show consists of eight poets rapping their poetry about everything from love, sex and violence to culture, race and conflict.

TimeOut interviews Simmons during a break in filming of the latest series of Def Poetry Jam on HBO. Today, former Fugee Wyclef Jean, Reverend Run from Run DMC (who is also Simmons' younger brother), and Sharon Stone are guests.

"Tomorrow, Alicia Keys is on, Friday we have Lauryn Hill, Kanye West ... these are people who want to do this TV show for next season," he enthuses.

But he's keen to point out the show we're getting in New Zealand is the "Tony Award winning show".

Then he goes off on one of his evangelistic rants: "The phenomenon just keeps getting bigger, and the poets just keep getting better, and just like the comedy side did, I see the poets getting better because there is so much hope in the art form and people are investing more in the art form and doing it full time rather than it being a hobby - they've made it a passion. Hold on one second ... "

And that's it. Bye Russell. Really nice talking.