Excerpt from Hip Hop Summit (New York City, June 2001): Introductory Speeches


Russell Simmons:

Now the question is, “Why are we here?” And the one question I wanna say to the press and to everyone is that we’re not really here to clean up Rap. And I know that a lot of the people in the industry have that concern because that’s the question from the press. We’re not really here to clean up Rap. In fact, I love everything that we’ve done so far. I think we have the most important and powerful influence in American culture. We have offices all over the world that say “Hip Hop” on the door. And we’ve brought more people together than any other cultural art form and, because of us, the trailers and the projects are connected, because of us, they kids in Beverley Hills understand the plight of the kids in Compton, and I’m very proud of what we’ve done. So, I wanna say that first because we’re not here to do anything but celebrate. Beyond that, I’m hopeful that we’ll be inspired to be even greater. But I wanna make that statement cause I know many people think that there’s something wrong, in the same way something was wrong with mark Twain or Jazz or Blues or Rock ‘N’ Roll or all of– Shakespeare or Plato or whatever it is– we are telling the world who we are and what are issues are. We hope leadership addresses these issues, but it’s our job to tell them the truth. So, in the interest of telling the truth, we’re here to discuss that and what is that truth, and how much greater can that truth be.
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