Joseph Ward Simmons (born November 14, 1964), better known by the stage name Run, Rev. Run or DJ Run, is an American rapper, producer, DJ and television personality. Simmons is one of the founding members of the influential hip hop group
Run-DMC
Run-DMC (also spelled Run-D.M.C.) was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens, New York City, founded in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history ...
. He is also a practicing minister, known as Reverend Run.
He found new popularity in 2005 with his family's
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
. He is the younger brother of artist
Danny Simmons
Daniel "Danny" Simmons Jr. is a Neo-African abstract expressionist painter, a published author, poet and philanthropist. He is a leader in the art world with his philanthropic ventures, artistic talents and creative mind and drive. Danny Simmo ...
and
Russell Simmons
Russell Wendell Simmons (born October 4, 1957) is an American entrepreneur, writer and record executive. He co-founded the hip-hop label Def Jam Recordings, and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. Simmons ...
, the co-founder of
Def Jam records
Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop.
The l ...
.
Career
Before Run–D.M.C., Simmons was the lead vocalist in the hip-hop group named "The Force." He founded Run-D.M.C. as a lead vocalist along with friend Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels and the late DJJason "Jam-Master Jay" Mizell.
Run began using the stage name of "Rev. Run" after he was ordained as a
Pentecostal
Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestantism, Protestant Charismatic Christianity, Charismatic Christian movementE. Bernard Jordan, Simmons's spiritual mentor. Jordan also named him "Protege of the Year Award" in 2004. The same day, symbolic of his "Prosperity Ministry", there was a "
Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to:
* Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct
Automobiles
* Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
parade outside the
Plaza Hotel
The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, "featuring Jordan's Phantom Rolls-Royce. The new $325,000 Phantom had been a gift from Reverend Run as a "thank you" for Jordan's mentoring support.
His first work as Rev. Run was a feature in the single "Song 4 Lovers" by UK
pop
Pop or POP may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Pop music, a musical genre Artists
* POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade
* Pop!, a UK pop group
* Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
Albums
* ''Pop'' ( ...
band
Liberty X
Liberty X (originally called Liberty) are a British-Irish group originally consisting of Michelle Heaton, Tony Lundon, Kevin Simm, Jessica Taylor and Kelli Young. The group was formed by the five finalists of the 2001 ITV talent show '' Popstar ...
in September 2005. The music video for that song was directed by Bill Schacht for Aestheticom and reached broadcast airplay chart positions of No. 2 Box UK and No. 4 MTV UK with heavy rotation on 5 other music channels in the UK. "Song 4 Lovers" also reached No. 5 on the Official Charts Company's UK Top 40 Singles Chart, becoming the band's seventh top ten hit.
It was followed by his first solo album, ''
Distortion
In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signa ...
''. The first single from the album, "Mind on the Road", is featured in the
EA Sports
EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...
's '' Madden NFL 06'' video game. "Mind on the Road" uses samples from the song "
I Love Rock 'n' Roll
"I Love Rock 'n' Roll" is a rock song written by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker and first recorded by the Arrows, a British rock band, in 1975. A 1981 cover version by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, released as the first single from her album of ...
", in the tradition of Run–D.M.C.'s 1980s hits which use samples like Aerosmith's hit "
Walk This Way
"Walk This Way" is a song by the American rock band Aerosmith. Written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, the song was originally released as the second single from the album '' Toys in the Attic'' (1975). It peaked at number 10 on the ''Billboa ...
".
In 2002, he appeared on a special "Rap Stars" edition of ''
The Weakest Link
''Weakest Link'' (also known as ''The Weakest Link'') is a television game show which first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and originally ended on 31 March 2012 when its host Anne Robinson completed her contract. ...
,'' and was the third one voted off.
Rev Run appeared on the
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
series '' Run's House'', a reality show revolving around his everyday life with his family, from 2005-2009.
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
Kool-Aid is an American brand of flavored drink mix owned by Kraft Heinz based in Chicago, Illinois. The powder form was created by Edwin Perkins in 1927 based upon a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack.
History
Kool-Aid was invented by ...
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 Chris Morrow.
On September 8, 2007, Rev Run was honored as a BMI Icon at the annual BMI Urban Awards.
The weekend of September 17 and 18 of 2011, Rev Run made a special guest appearance at Bay Area Fellowship with Pastor Bil Cornelius in Corpus Christi, Texas Bay Area Fellowship Church.
In October 2011, Rev Run was a special guest of
Fellowship Church
Fellowship Church (FC) is Baptist Evangelical multi-site megachurch located in Grapevine, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth, that is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. FC's lead pastor has been Ed Young since its opening in 1989.
H ...
based out of
Grapevine, Texas
Grapevine is a city and suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth located in northeast Tarrant County, Texas, United States, with minor portions extending into Dallas County and Denton County. The city is located in the Mid-Cities suburban region betwee ...
.
Simmons has also created three other cable series, two premiered in 2014; '' Rev Run's Renovation'' which runs on both the DIY Network and
HGTV
HGTV (an initialism for Home & Garden Television) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The network primarily broadcasts reality programming related to home improvement and real estate. As of February 2015, app ...
Cooking Channel
Cooking Channel is an American basic cable channel owned by Food Network, a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (69%) and Nexstar Media Group (31%). The channel is a spin-off of Food Network, broadcasting ...
Travel Channel
Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...
in 2016.
Personal life
Simmons married Valerie Vaughn in 1983. They have three children:
Vanessa Simmons
Vanessa Jean Simmons (born August 5, 1983) is an American television personality. Her family is featured in the MTV reality show '' Run's House''. She was recently the host and judge of '' Project Runway: Threads''.
Early life
Simmons is the old ...
Justine Jones
Dr. Justine McKay (also Jones) is a fictional character on the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Street'' who appeared in numerous stints from 2005 to 2009. She was portrayed by Laurie Foell in 2005 for a guest stint before returning in 2006 as a ...
caesarean
Caesarean section, also known as C-section or caesarean delivery, is the surgical procedure by which one or more babies are delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen, often performed because vaginal delivery would put the baby or ...
section. She died shortly after being born on September 26, 2006, due to
omphalocele
Omphalocele or omphalocoele also called exomphalos, is a rare abdominal wall defect. Beginning at the 6th week of development, rapid elongation of the gut and increased liver size reduces intra abdominal space, which pushes intestinal loops out of ...
People
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
''. Saturday March 31, 2007 11:55 PM EDT The Simmons' allowed
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
camera crews of '' Run's House'' to document baby Victoria's death, telling 'People' that "God, in my mind, gave us something to go through in front of America, so we documented it on-camera – not so much to show you sadness, but to show you how we, as ministers, would handle this tragedy.
he kids
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
found out on-camera. Diggy was waiting to see, 'How's Mommy?' And the first words we said were, 'The baby didn't make it.'" Soon they adopted a baby girl, Miley Justine Simmons .
The Simmons family lives in
Saddle River, New Jersey
Saddle River is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. It is a suburb of New York City, located just over northwest of Manhattan. The town is known for its natural fields, farmland, forests, and rivers, and has a bucolic atmos ...
in a six-bedroom colonial-style home that was listed for sale in 2007 for $5.5 million.
In 2017, Simmons said he was adopting
vegetarianism
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetarianis ...
because God advised him to.Taylor Rock,"Rev Run Is A Vegetarian, Because God Said So, The Daily Meal 11 October 2017.