Today, between his vast business empire (which includes the successful urban fashion label, Phat Farm), relentless philanthropic activities, and social agenda, Russell's fingerprints are everywhere.

Russell Simmons is a master visionary who has long shaped the cutting edge of hip-hop. Since its inception in the late 1970s, Simmons has been instrumental in bringing Hip-Hop to every facet of business and media: in music with the immensely successful Def Jam Recordings; in film with Simmons Lathan Media Group; in television with HBO's The Def Comedy Jam and Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry; on Broadway with the Tony Award-winning stage production "Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway"; in the fashion industry with the red-hot Phat Farm, Baby Phat, Run Athletics, and Def Jam University clothing lines; in magazine publishing with OneWorld Magazine; in the financial services industry with the RushCard and baby Phat RushCard; in the beverage business with Russell Simmons Beverage Company and its Def Con 3 energy drink; in the community with Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network. He also authored his memoir, Life and Def: Sex, Drugs, Money and God.

The 45-year-old Simmons is a native New Yorker who attended City College of New York. His interests extend far beyond the business world, and he spends a great deal of his time and considerable energy working for social, political, and philanthropic causes, pushing hip-hop on to new plateaus of power and relevance. In 1995 he, along with his brothers Danny and Joseph Simmons (Rev. Run of Run DMC), founded Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. The organization is dedicated to providing disadvantaged urban youth with significant exposure and access to the arts, as well as offering exhibition opportunities to underrepresented artists and artists of color. Following the historic Hip-Hop Summit Simmons organized in June 2001, he founded the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) to harness the cultural relevance of hip-hop music as a catalyst for education advocacy and other societal concerns fundamental to the well-being of at-risk youth throughout the United States. Among HSAN's major initiatives is Team Vote, a massive effort to register at least two million new voters by the 2004 Presidential election. Simmons and his wife Kimora Lee have two daughters, Ming Lee and Aoki Lee.

Recently, Simmons formed a 50/50 joint label with Island Def Jam Music Group. The Russell Simmons Music Group will be headed up with Tony Austin as president, and the label will debut later this year with new albums by Simmons' brother Reverend Run (Joseph Simmons) and Buddafly, an R&B group comprised of three sisters.

Simmons and his ventures are driven by a personal and corporate belief that hip-hop is an enormously influential agent for social change, which must be responsibly and proactively utilized to fight the war on poverty and ignorance.