May 02, 2016
Russel Simmons has explained why he and business partner Rick Rubin went their separate ways only five years after starting their iconic label Def Jam in 1983.
Speaking to Vlad TV, Simmons stated that the creative differences between the pair were just too big to overcome.
“Well, if he's making Slayer and I'm over here making Oran 'Juice' Jones where's the common thread? We should have been in the studio making Run DMC together, that's what I think. We should've made the next Run DMC album.”
The pair began the label over 30 years ago in Rick Rubin’s university dorm room and they went on to produce influential records from the likes of The Beastie Boys and LL Cool J. However, Rubin left his own label in 1988 to start up a new one with a greater focus on rock music. While Simmons stuck around for another decade before he sold his final shares of the company he built in 1999.
Meanwhile, Simmons took the opportunity to also talk about the segregation that he believes is rampant in Hollywood. “The problem is that there’s nobody black pushing buttons nowhere. Nowhere. In charge of nothing,” he said.
“No president of no studio is black. No president of no TV show company is black. No body of any significance at all in the agency business is black. Nobody. Nobody black in charge of nothing at no agency… I see it as an infrastructure problem.”
Watch an extended cut of the interview below:
Image: The Source