Russell Simmon's Def Poetry Jam

By Tom Sime - The Dallas Morning News

Russell Simmons is accustomed to the big time. He's a producer of movies (The Nutty Professor) and television (Def Comedy Jam) and founder of the Def Jam rap record label, the Phat Farm clothing line, and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, a national voter registration organization.

So no one would have predicted he'd get involved with a bunch of poets, the quintessential starving artists. But everything Mr. Simmons touches seems to take flight, and now there's Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam, a Broadway hit coming to the Majestic Theatre on Feb. 10, presented by the Dallas Summer Musicals' Broadway Contemporary Series.

Mr. Simmons dismissed urban poetry at first. His brother, producer Danny Simmons (an early supporter of the rap-influenced stand-up poetry scene) persuaded Russell to let him use the Def Jam name for the HBO series Def Poetry Jam. The stage show grew out of that project, which showcases the verbal virtuosos of the poetry movement. The Tony-winning stage show showcases "the best of the best" from the TV show.

"I saw it developing from being an alternative form to a commercial form," says Mr. Simmons in a phone interview. "And I was kinda late; poetry had been around for a while – the stand-up, spoken-word business. ... By the time I got into it, the ... [expletive] was already big. But when I put it on HBO, it got exposure."

And once out on the airwaves, these former "street" poets resonated with mainstream viewers.

"They say things that everybody relates to, and it really speaks to a lot of people's questions and ideas," Mr. Simmons says. "People are expressing things that everybody can relate to. I saw that starting to happen, and that's why I got involved."

He's happy to give credit to Broadway impresario George C. Wolfe, who set the precedent for black urban art forms on Broadway with Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk. But Mr. Simmons says he didn't see that groundbreaking show.

"I operate – unfortunately, and in some cases, fortunately – from absolute ignorance," Mr. Simmons says. "You have to understand why that's relevant; it's the same reason that rappers did things that no one thought they could ever do, made deals that no one thought they could ever make: 'cause they didn't know any better."

But now that he's a "mogul," has he lost that inspired ignorance? He laughs. "I'm pretty good at holdin' on to it."