Texas Two-Step
October, 2001
In his autobiography, Life and Def (Crown), Russell Simmons reveals how brass-knuckles entrepreneurship made him the Donald Trump of hip-hop. In the late Seventies, while supporting himself by selling fake cocaine in Queens, Simmons started Rush Productions, managing new-school artists. Soon after, he and Rick Rubin founded Def Jam Records, which launched the careers of LL Cool J, Run-DMC, Public Enemy, the Beastie Boys and DMX. Foreseeing that hip-hop was more than just the music, Simmons left...
