Russell Simmons arrived to dinner Tuesday night in a chauffeured Lincoln Town Car which had brought him straight from Baltimore's Penn Station. Dressed in our sparkling formal attire, we were a little taken aback at first when we saw Simmons step out of the car fully clothed in his own clothing line, Phat Farm.
As a member of the MSE Symposium staff, I had the extraordinary opportunity to share a dinner with Mr. Simmons and a few other students this past Tuesday night.
Simmons himself is not an intimidating presence, even though his nickname, the "Godfather of Rap," and his musical accomplishments do inspire intense feelings of awe and respect. He is the man most people point to as making rap and hip-hop music popular and bringing it to the avenue of mainstream music. He also has represented some of the most popular rap groups of the past two decades, like Run DMC (a member of which was Simmons' brother), the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J.
But there is a friendly side to the man who runs a $220 million dollar empire, and has been featured on both VH1's Behind the Music and MTV's Cribs.
When he first stepped out of the car, I was a little apprehensive about approaching him, but he came right over and introduced himself to all of us.
"Hi, I'm Russell, nice to meet you."
Along with him was his personal assistant, Gary, who throughout dinner manned two cell phones which he answered fairly frequently, both connected to an ear-piece. As soon as we sat down, a call came in from a Florida congressman of whom Simmons had to ask a favor. I asked the assistant why two cell phones were necessary.
"One cell phone isn't enough to take all the calls," he replied.
But Simmons wasn't about to let calls get in the way of his meal. He asked each of us what we were studying and jumped immediately into conversation over current events and politics. He expressed his intense unhappiness with President Bush's hasty advance toward an invasion of Iraq.
After asking if anyone sitting at the table was a republican, only two people raised their hands: a student and Gary, the assistant. This led to quite an amusing exchange between the latter and Simmons, who joked that he would fire him. Gary's reaction? A big, hearty laugh, joined in by Simmons himself. With most media-moguls I could imagine that most assistants would not laugh when their bosses joked that they would fire them. But in this case, Simmons' warm and endearing demeanor shined right through whatever preconceived notions we might have had.
During dinner, Simmons touched on multiple topics, including his beloved yoga, the nationwide decrease in student activism, voting and foreign policy.
Simmons is also a loving father. At age 45, his wife recently gave birth to his second child, a daughter who is now just eight weeks old. When asked about them, he quickly took out his wallet and passed around photos of the family. I was impressed by the fact that he was so willing to open up to a bunch of strange college kids he had never met before in his life. But it was just another example of his down to earth personality.
Now eating with a celebrity of Simmons' caliber is not a typical dining experience. As a vegan, he has very specific dietary needs. Before dinner, Simmons went into a long diatribe about the reasons behind his veganism. Killing animals, he said, was against his philosophy of peaceful existence into which he incorporated all living things. He called over the waiter and asked for a pizza with no cheese and vegetables as well as a bowl of pasta primavera, neither or which were on the menu or a part of the vegan meal the chef had prepared especially for him. But with a polite, "Yes, sir" the waiter took the order without complaint and a few minutes later, Simmons' wishes were fulfilled.
After dinner we whisked Simmons back to Shriver Hall for his speech. With no pre-prepared speech, he spoke from the heart about issues concerning race and poverty in America. A music producer, philanthropist and poet, Russell Simmons proved to me and the audience that money does not always breed egotism and selfishness. In this case it has brought about just the opposite: kindness and the willingness to share.
