Russell Simmons Fires Back at Geraldo Rivera for Trashing Hip-Hop

Yesterday (Feb. 18), Fox News pundit Geraldo Rivera made the controversial claim that hip-hop has been more destructive to "Black and Brown people" than racism has, over the past 10 years. Lamenting that hip-hop culture dulls the prospects of "youngsters"--Rivera used the archetypes of "a Puerto Rican from the South Bronx" and "a Black kid from Harlem"--the talking head insisted that rap was insidious, painting minorities as less than professional. He believes that those who participated in hip-hop would be relegated to working at "you know, the racks in the garment center."

Not only did Rivera's comments raise eyebrows (and maybe mustaches), but Rivera brought one of hip-hop's founding fathers into the mix. “I love Russell Simmons, he’s a dear friend of mine," he said of the Def Jam co-founder. "I admire his business acumen. [But] at some point, those guys have to cop to the fact that by encouraging this distinctive culture that is removed from the mainstream, they have encouraged people to be so different from the mainstream that they can’t participate."

Today, TMZ published comments from Simmons that make he and Rivera seem decidedly less close. Saying that Rivera--whose first name he mispronounced--"never did shit to help nobody, not in a very long time," Simmons seemed less than pleased with the implication that hip-hop was a destructive social force. Instead, he shifted the focus onto the real problem: "The prison industrial complex got people so twisted," he offered. "For 40 years, they've been locking up diseased drug addicts, educating them on criminal behavior and dumping them back in the hood. The poetry and the reflection [in hip-hop] are what come from that jail culture." Simmons and Rivera had previously sparred over the latter's suggestion that Trayvon Martin brought his murder upon himself by wearing a hoodie.

Filed Under: Geraldo Rivera, Russell Simmons

Categories: News