Joseph Ward Simmons (born November 14, 1964), 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. He is also a practicing minister, known as Reverend Run. He found new popularity in 2005 with his family's MTV reality show Run's House.
Simmons was born November 14, 1964 in Hollis, Queens, New York. He is the younger brother of artist Danny Simmons and Russell Simmons, the co-founder of Def Jam Records.
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 "D.M.C." McDaniels 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[1] by E. Bernard Jordan, Simmons's spiritual mentor.[2] Jordan also named him "Protege of the Year Award" in 2004. The same day, symbolic of his "Prosperity Ministry", there was a "Rolls Royce parade outside the Plaza Hotel in New York City, "featuring Jordan's Phantom Rolls Royce.[3] The new $325,000 Phantom had been a gift from Reverend Run as a "thank you" for Jordan's mentoring support.[4]
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 No. 2 Box UK and No. 4 MTV UK with heavy rotation on 5 other music channels in the UK.
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–D.M.C.'s 1980s hits which use samples like Aerosmith's hit "Walk This Way".
In 2002, he appeared on a special "Rap Stars" edition of The Weakest Link,[5] and was the third one voted off.
Rev Run appeared on the MTV 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 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.
THROWBACKTHISDAY; makes it 51 years and TBT B log remembers.
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