By sukhdarshan sehgal | February 14, 2014 0 Comments

NET WORTH: $350 Million

PROFESSION: Business Tycoon & Co founder of Def Jam

 

Early life

Russell Wendell Simmons was born on born October 4, 1957 and was raised in queen’s New York. His father worked as a public school administrator and mother was a New York City park administrator. Russell Simmons is famous business Tycoon and cofounder of the legendary hip music label DEF JAM. He also started the brand Phat farm and is considered to be as one of the most important and richest personality in whole of the HIP HOP industry.

After graduating from August Martin High School in 1975 he entered City College of New York in Harlem, but dropped out very soon. He was the second of three sons in his family, and both his parents were graduates of Howard University in Washington, D.C.

He found a job at an Orange Julius outlet in Greenwich Village, but at some point he also financed his club-going lifestyle by selling fake cocaine. Simmons quit the fake drug business, and eventually left City College just a few credits short of a degree in sociology. He began promoting concerts, and then formed his own management company for artists, which he called Rush Management, after his childhood nickname

 THE START UP

In 1985 Russell Simmons co-produced and appeared in the film, Krush Groove. It featured an array of top music acts from the era, from Run-D.M.C. and the Beastie Boys to LL Cool J and a young Bobby Brown when he was still a member of New Edition. It was directed by Michael Schultz (1938–), who made two earlier cinematic classics of African American urban life, Cooley High and Car Wash. Simmons was one of the film’s producers. The entrepreneurship abilities of Russell Simmons were beyond question!!! and he gained his real knowledge and education beyond the walls of college .

During the mid-1980s Simmons became known for his sharp ear and ability to predict the next big thing in music. He helped bring the Beastie Boys to a wider audience, and even revived the careers of the fading rock act Aerosmith, when Run-D.M.C. covered their 1975 hit “Walk This Way.” Simmons was the star of the 2010 reality TV show Running Russell Simmons.

He is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and is also editor-in-chief of GlobalGrind.com, a website that reviews the world of hip-hop.

RELATIONS

Simmons met then-17-year-old, model Kimora Lee in November 1992. They dated for four years and married on December 20, 1998 They had 2 daughters, Ming Lee and Aoki Lee. In March 2006, Simmons announced his divorce from Lee.

Hana Nitsche

They might have an age gap of 30 years but that doesn’t stop Russell Simmons and his model girlfriend Hana Nitsche from having fun in the sun.The 55-year-old music mogul and the beautiful brunette played games on a beach in Malibu, California, on Saturday just as if they were both teenagers.

Russell Simmons’ girlfriend Hana Nitsche has lost her dog. The model is offering a $5000 reward for the safe return of her pet Chihuahua Ivy.The black and tan/tricolour pup went missing in the Doheny area of West Hollywood on Tuesday. Hana, 26, has taken to her Twitter account to make a plea for help from her 6,000 followers.Over the four days since Ivy disappeared, Hana’s tweets have become steadily more frantic.

 

Property & WEALTH

 Saddle River Home

Simmons lived with his wife and family in a Saddle River, New Jersey home that covered 35,000 square feet (3,300 m2). This whopping and breath taking house is spread in the area of four acres, and the residence is built on the land, measuring 49,000 square feet. The house has ten spacious and ostentatious rooms, a movie theatre, advanced gym, a wine cellar, a bar, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, elegant quarters for staff, and a vigilant security system. The house has often been on and off the sale. With ten bedrooms, 35 foot ceilings, and gold-leaf ceilings, this New Jersey estate has an asking price of more than $20 million. It is located 25 miles north of Manhattan, New York, in the same suburb that was once home to Richard Nixon. The house was built in 1996 by clothing mogul Arnold Simon and, with its vast number of rooms seems to be more of a museum than a residence.

 

Lower Manhattan House

Russell Simmons also owns a beautiful duplex in lower Manhattan, which is built in the area of 7,175 square feet. The house has five massive bedrooms and a swanky rooftop terrace. Simmons’ house also features solid timber floors, fireplace, 12-foot ceilings, French windows, multiple closets, a huge library, a spacious living room, an eat- in kitchen, and a private elevator. The house was on sale in the market since 2011, for $11 million.

 

REEDS JEWELLER’S

n 2004, entrepreneur Russell Simmons, designer Kimora Lee Simmons and jewellery expert Scott Rauch formed a breakthrough venture, with a goal of bringing a youthful cool sensibility to the world of fine jewellery. The company is quickly emerging as an industry leader and design innovator in all jewellery categories.

 

THE TOILET SEAT

Their mansion was home to a “gold-leaf-and-carved-jade powder-room toilet” supposedly owned by only two other people in the world, “Oprah and some king.” The perfect throne for a king.The gold and marble seat rest’s in their master bedroom. The value of the toilet seat is unknown but made of solid gold and marble.

 

VEGAN & YOGA

In his 2002 autobiography, Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money and God, Simmons recounts his business successes and the personal philosophies that keep him grounded. A vegan, he practices yoga daily and makes all his employees read The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra (1946–) and then submit a report on the book. Some of his top executives began as interns at the company long ago. “I surround myself with people that share the same spirituality that I believe in,” he told