Joseph Simmons
Encyclopedia
Joseph Ward Simmons known by the stage name Rev. Run or DJ Run, is one of the founding members of the influential hip hop
group Run–D.M.C., and a practicing minister, known as Reverend
Run. Simmons was born in Hollis
, Queens
, New York
. He is the younger brother of Daniel "Danny" Simmons, Jr.
and Russell Simmons
, the co-founder of Def Jam Records.
He found new popularity in 2005 with his family MTV
reality show Run's House
.
and the late DJ Jason "Jam-Master Jay" Mizell. Run began using the stage name of "Rev. Run" after he was ordained as a Pentecostal minister. His first work as Rev. Run was a feature in the single "Song 4 Lovers" by UK
pop
band Liberty X
in September 2005. The music video for that song was directed by Bill Schacht for Aestheticom and reached broadcast airplay chart positions of #2 Box UK and #4 MTV UK with heavy rotation on 5 other music channels in the UK. Run DMC also is in the rock and roll hall of fame .
It was followed by his first solo album, Distortion. The first single from the album, "Mind on the Road", is featured in the EA Sports
's Madden NFL 06
video game. "Mind on the Road" uses samples from the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll
", in the tradition of Run-DMC's 1980s hits using samples like Aerosmith's hit "Walk This Way
"
Rev Run appears on the MTV
series Run's House
, a reality show revolving around his everyday life with his family.
In 2002, he appeared on a special "Rap Stars" edition of The Weakest Link
and was the third one voted off.
In 2007, he appeared with his son Diggy Simmons
on My Super Sweet 16
while attending a 16th birthday party for Diddy
's son, Quincy. Diddy
is also the producer of Run's House.
In 2008, Simmons and his wife Justine teamed up with Kool-Aid
and a non-profit organization called KaBOOM! to help build playgrounds in underserved communities. With Kool-Aid, they are helping to build twenty four playgrounds over the course of 2008 and hope to raise awareness for the need for safe play spaces.
On August 5, 2008 Gotham Press published Simmons' book, Take Back Your Family: A Challenge to America's Parents, co-authored by his wife, Justine Simmons, and Chrisifer Morrow
On September 8, 2007, Rev Run was honored as a BMI
Icon at the annual BMI Urban Awards.
The Weekend of September 17th and 18th of 2011, Rev Run will be making a Special Guest appearence at Bay Area Fellowship with Pastor Bil Cornelius in Corpus Christi, Texas Bay Area Fellowship Church
During the month of October 2011, Rev Run will be a special guest of Fellowship Church based out of Grapevine, TX (Senior Pastor Ed Young).
He married Justine Jones on June 25, 1994. With her, he had three more children: Daniel "Diggy" Simmons III
, Russell "Russy" Simmons II, and Victoria Anne Simmons. Victoria died shortly after birth on September 26, 2006. Victoria was four pounds, five ounces when she was delivered via caesarean section. She died shortly after being born, due to omphalocele
, a birth defect that caused her organs to grow outside her body. The Simmons family allowed camera crews (of Run's House
) to be in the hospital room as they broke the news to their children. Soon they adopted a baby girl, Miley Justine Simmons.
The Simmons family lives in Saddle River, New Jersey
, USA.
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
group Run–D.M.C., and a practicing minister, known as Reverend
The Reverend
The Reverend is a style most often used as a prefix to the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. The Reverend is correctly called a style but is often and in some dictionaries called a...
Run. Simmons was born in Hollis
Hollis, Queens
Hollis is a neighborhood within the southeastern section of the New York City borough of Queens. A predominantly African American community, the boundaries are considered to be the Far Rockaway Branch of the Long Island Rail Road to the west, Hillside Avenue to the north, Francis Lewis Boulevard to...
, Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He is the younger brother of Daniel "Danny" Simmons, Jr.
Danny Simmons
Daniel " Simmons, Jr. is an abstract expressionist painter. Older brother of hip-hop impressario Russell Simmons and rapper Joseph Simmons , he is the co-founder and Chairman of Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation which provides disadvantaged urban youth with arts access and education...
and Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons
-External links:** * * * * * * from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum* *...
, the co-founder of Def Jam Records.
He found new popularity in 2005 with his family MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
reality show Run's House
Run's House
Run's House was an MTV reality series. It showed the family life of rapper and hip-hop music pioneer Joseph Simmons, also known as Rev Run....
.
Career
Before Run–D.M.C., Simmons was the lead vocalist in the hip-hop group called "The Force." He founded Run-D.M.C. as a lead vocalist along with friend Darryl "DMC" McDanielsDarryl McDaniels
-Video game appearances:*The Warriors - Scopes*Guitar Hero: Aerosmith - Himself- External links :* * * * * http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/12/entertainment/la-et-people-speak12-2009dec12...
and the late DJ Jason "Jam-Master Jay" Mizell. Run began using the stage name of "Rev. Run" after he was ordained as a Pentecostal minister. His first work as Rev. Run was a feature in the single "Song 4 Lovers" by UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
band Liberty X
Liberty X
Liberty X were a British pop vocal group formed by the five contestants eliminated from the final ten qualifiers from the 2001 ITV show Popstars. The group consisted of Tony Lundon, Kevin Simm, Michelle Heaton, Kelli Young and Jessica Taylor...
in September 2005. The music video for that song was directed by Bill Schacht for Aestheticom and reached broadcast airplay chart positions of #2 Box UK and #4 MTV UK with heavy rotation on 5 other music channels in the UK. Run DMC also is in the rock and roll hall of fame .
It was followed by his first solo album, Distortion. The first single from the album, "Mind on the Road", is featured in the EA Sports
EA Sports
EA Sports is a brand of Electronic Arts that creates and develops sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to mimic real-life sports networks by calling themselves "EA Sports Network" with pictures or endorsements of real commentators such as John...
's Madden NFL 06
Madden NFL 06
Madden NFL 06 is an American football video game which was released on August 8, 2005. It is also a launch game for the Xbox 360. It is the 16th installment of the Madden NFL series by EA Sports, named for noted color commentator John Madden. The product features former Philadelphia Eagles...
video game. "Mind on the Road" uses samples from the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll
I Love Rock 'n' Roll
"I Love Rock 'n Roll" is a rock song written in 1975 by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker of Arrows, who recorded the first released version. The song was later made famous by the hit version recorded by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts in 1981....
", in the tradition of Run-DMC's 1980s hits using samples like Aerosmith's hit "Walk This Way
Walk This Way
"Walk This Way" is a song by American hard rock group Aerosmith. Written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, the song was originally released as the second single from the 1975 album Toys in the Attic. It peaked at Number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1977, part of a string of successful hit...
"
Rev Run appears on the MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
series Run's House
Run's House
Run's House was an MTV reality series. It showed the family life of rapper and hip-hop music pioneer Joseph Simmons, also known as Rev Run....
, a reality show revolving around his everyday life with his family.
In 2002, he appeared on a special "Rap Stars" edition of The Weakest Link
Weakest Link (US game show)
The Weakest Link is an American game show that aired on NBC from April 16, 2001 to July 14, 2002. It is based on the British show of the same name. Ten episodes were left unaired until appearing on PAX in 2002, with the remainder eventually airing on GSN...
and was the third one voted off.
In 2007, he appeared with his son Diggy Simmons
Diggy Simmons
Daniel Dwayne Simmons III , better known by his stage name Diggy Simmons or simply as Diggy, is an American rapper and the fourth child of Joseph "Rev. Run" Simmons...
on My Super Sweet 16
My Super Sweet 16
My Super Sweet 16 is an MTV reality series documenting the lives of teenagers, usually in the United States, Canada and UK, who usually have wealthy parents that throw huge coming of age celebrations. Parties include the quinceañera , the sweet 16, and other birthdays including a My Super Sweet 21 ...
while attending a 16th birthday party for Diddy
Sean Combs
Sean John Combs , also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally...
's son, Quincy. Diddy
Sean Combs
Sean John Combs , also known by his stage names Diddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur. He has won three Grammy Awards and two MTV Video Music Awards, and his clothing line earned a Council of Fashion Designers of America award. He was originally...
is also the producer of Run's House.
In 2008, Simmons and his wife Justine teamed up with Kool-Aid
Kool-Aid
Kool-Aid is a brand of flavored drink mix owned by the Kraft Foods Company.-History:Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins in Hastings, Nebraska, United States. All of his experiments took place in his mother's kitchen. Its predecessor was a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack...
and a non-profit organization called KaBOOM! to help build playgrounds in underserved communities. With Kool-Aid, they are helping to build twenty four playgrounds over the course of 2008 and hope to raise awareness for the need for safe play spaces.
On August 5, 2008 Gotham Press published Simmons' book, Take Back Your Family: A Challenge to America's Parents, co-authored by his wife, Justine Simmons, and Chrisifer Morrow
On September 8, 2007, Rev Run was honored as a BMI
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
Icon at the annual BMI Urban Awards.
The Weekend of September 17th and 18th of 2011, Rev Run will be making a Special Guest appearence at Bay Area Fellowship with Pastor Bil Cornelius in Corpus Christi, Texas Bay Area Fellowship Church
During the month of October 2011, Rev Run will be a special guest of Fellowship Church based out of Grapevine, TX (Senior Pastor Ed Young).
Personal life
Simmons married Valerie Vaughn in 1983, and had three children with her, Vanessa Simmons, Angela Simmons, and Joseph "Jojo" Simmons Jr.He married Justine Jones on June 25, 1994. With her, he had three more children: Daniel "Diggy" Simmons III
Diggy Simmons
Daniel Dwayne Simmons III , better known by his stage name Diggy Simmons or simply as Diggy, is an American rapper and the fourth child of Joseph "Rev. Run" Simmons...
, Russell "Russy" Simmons II, and Victoria Anne Simmons. Victoria died shortly after birth on September 26, 2006. Victoria was four pounds, five ounces when she was delivered via caesarean section. She died shortly after being born, due to omphalocele
Omphalocele
An omphalocele is a type of abdominal wall defect in which the intestines, liver, and occasionally other organs remain outside of the abdomen in a sac because of a defect in the development of the muscles of the abdominal wall.-Presentation:The sac, which is formed from an outpouching of...
, a birth defect that caused her organs to grow outside her body. The Simmons family allowed camera crews (of Run's House
Run's House
Run's House was an MTV reality series. It showed the family life of rapper and hip-hop music pioneer Joseph Simmons, also known as Rev Run....
) to be in the hospital room as they broke the news to their children. Soon they adopted a baby girl, Miley Justine Simmons.
The Simmons family lives in Saddle River, New Jersey
Saddle River, New Jersey
Saddle River is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 3,152. Saddle River has the second-highest per-capita income in the state...
, USA.