--- title: Russell Simmons, Rev Run, and Danny Simmons on Growing Up description: Russell Simmons is now a multimillionaire mogul, Danny is a painter and author, and Rev Run was one-third of the hip-hop trio Run-D.M.C. canonical: https://time.com/4464672/rev-run-danny-simmons-russell-simmons-childhood/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-26T00:58:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:44:20.582Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Watch Rev Run, Danny and Russell Simmons Tease Each Other og:description: Even super-siblings bicker sometimes og:url: https://time.com/4464672/rev-run-danny-simmons-russell-simmons-childhood/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec3035ba75706987/6988a3912dce01fa6f9ea6a3/simmons-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1804 og:image:height: 1015 og:image:alt: simmons-2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Rev Run, Danny and Russell Simmons Tease Each Other twitter:description: Even super-siblings bicker sometimes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltec3035ba75706987/6988a3912dce01fa6f9ea6a3/simmons-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Rev Run, Danny Simmons and Russell Simmons Talk About Their Childhood > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Secrets of Successful Siblings: Danny, Russell and Joseph 'Rev. Run' Simmons [Watch (HLS stream): Secrets of Successful Siblings: Danny, Russell and Joseph 'Rev. Run' Simmons](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/4yMGkmaO.m3u8) (5:52)  _Published 2016-08-24. In the Sept. 5 issue of TIME, we looked at what makes for successful siblings. It is a story about nine American families, including the Simmons family, who all saw their children go on to achieve unlikely levels of success._ by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/) and [Diane Tsai](https://time.com/author/diane-tsai/) Aug 26, 2016 12:58 AM UTC by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/) and [Diane Tsai](https://time.com/author/diane-tsai/) Aug 26, 2016 12:58 AM UTC In the [Sept. 5 issue of TIME](http://time.com/superfamilies/), we looked at what makes for successful siblings. It is a story about [nine American families,](http://time.com/superfamilies/) including the Simmons family, who all saw their children go on to achieve [unlikely levels of success.](http://time.com/superfamilies/) Not all kids from tough neighbor­hoods make it out. But Russell Simmons is now a multimillionaire entrepreneur, a co-founder of Def Jam Recordings and the chairman and CEO of Rush Communications. Danny is a painter and author who co-created Def Poetry Jam on HBO with Russell and oversees the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. And Rev Run was one-third of the hip-hop trio Run-D.M.C. in the 1980s and ’90s and is now an ordained minister and reality-­TV star. Growing up in heroin-ridden Hollis, Queens, in the 1970s, Danny and Russell once survived a street fight against 12 other guys. Occasionally, they’d bring the fighting home. “One time Danny took a comb and ran it through my hair, and it hurt real bad,” says the youngest brother, Joseph, known as Rev Run. “I think he was high.” Their father Daniel Simmons Sr. didn’t try to shield his [sons from all violence. ](http://time.com/superfamilies/)“He respected what you learned in the culture in the street,” says Russell. “So he never really hid us from the stuff that was right on our corner.” That exposure also created motivation. “Seeing tragedy always pushes you to move past it,” says Danny, the oldest, who beat heroin addiction decades ago. Their father also found himself arrested during civil rights demonstrations. He worked as a New York City school-attendance superintendent by day and taught a college course on black history by night. His young sons remember waving goodbye as he boarded a bus from Queens to see Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington in 1963\. They stood with him on picket lines and visited his class on radical politics, and they were watching when he lay down in front of a bulldozer to protest a segregated construction site. Now adults, they say their father’s activism showed them how to get involved in the world outside themselves. “He had his own moral compass. He knew what was right and what was fair, and he demanded that kind of justice,” says Russell Simmons of his father. “It stuck with me. It stuck by all my brothers as well.[ It’s part of our makeup.”](http://time.com/superfamilies/) ## Transcript I think I asked Danny to tell me some embarrassing stories about you guys, but Russell do you have any ? >> I have the most embarrassing story -> Danny was the heroine addict, the dope fiend. Is that embarrassing ? >> No. No. No . >> They don't even know that . >> There's only one embarrassing story. Russell came home, late night High off of weed. I ate pizza. I left it, I put it in the garbage. You know how you have no brain off of marijuana. You look in the garbage can and said this is good. In the middle of my joke Dan? Tell your joke man . >> Do you know the joke? [ LAUGH ] [ CROSSTALK ].. I can see where it's going though . >> [ LAUGH ] You said he just likes [ UNKNOWN ] How long was it in there? [ LAUGH ] Michael now one. Cause this time magazine was high over pot. [ LAUGH ] [ MUSIC ] Rev? I'm coming. Hello. What's up man? How do you feel? [ INAUDIBLE ] Nice to meet you. Hi baby, look at you. We were kids. We did a lot of fun stuff together. I think the most fun stuff we did was smoke a bunch of pot together. Right, that was about the most fun thing we did. But we hung out a lot and we shared ideas a lot. We all support each other. I used to snake hunt, and Russel used to follow us, cuz that's what little brothers do, and we upturned a rock, and there's huge snake, and we were all scared of it, and Russel grabbed it by the head, and threw it up in the air, and said, it's a rattler, and I was, like, this kid got heart. I never been the kid brother, like, getting beat up. Well, one time, Danny took a comb, and ran it through my hair And it hurt really bad, I think he was high. [ MUSIC ] We're all artists, even if I'm an entrepreneur. No, I produced records at one time and I always think of it as a creative process. And I think Joey and Danny even more so, to make a piece of art and sell it and survive off it is a rarity. [ MUSIC ] My first time I saw a hip- hop performer and instead of selling drugs, I wanted to now sell music, that was an exciting moment. It was like the realization I could do something else. He would wake me up at 4 o'clock in the morning, on fire with ideas and I would be like Wow! You know, go back to bed, dude. It really inspired me to be around somebody that that was that passionate about something. One day somebody was playing WBLS, a radio station America's best. It had some really cool music. Guys, there was Frankie Crocker. And I went home to Russell. And I said, how do I find this Frankie Crocker? How do I find his station? He said go to the very end of the radio and turn back. The second you turn back that's the last station on FM. And I found Frankie Crocker and Chic and all these other bands. Playing records like Good Times and Freak Out and all the cool songs I wanted to hear. And Russell was promoting parties with Curtis Blow. Cuz I'm Curtis Blow and I want you to know that these are the- And I wanted to be down. And I fought my way into his world and began to deejay for Curtis Blow. So my connection to this industry is because of Russell and his fascination with music. I got blessed by God and end up being the biggest artist he had at the time. [ MUSIC ] We grew up listening to my father read poetry around the house. Sit us down, hey listen to this poem what do you think about it? Like Joey's five years old yeah okay. [ LAUGH ] And my mother's teaching us to paint. You know, my father was a person who had come from a very difficult environment and he respected What you learned in the culture in the street. But he also cared deeply about education, so he was kind of like walked two worlds. He never really accepted, even for a second, what was handed to us. I would go to the picket lines with him, I saw him go to jail. And it stuck with me, it stuck with all my brothers as well. Some of the songs that Rev's written and the poetry that Danny writes is about social justice. I think the skills that I have come from my family as a whole. Russell and them were young and had their thing, but my parents they had swag too, and not only did they have swag they were classy people. Confidence mixed with Character mixed with when to turn it off, when to turn it on, how to be sociable and that's where it all comes from. No there's never been any competition. I can honestly say the idea of competition is nothing that ever crossed my mind, never. Danny has his own lane. With art and Russel doesn't wanna be a rapper and I didn't wanna do what he was doing. [ LAUGH ] We're always connected, we never not been connected. So I don't have that memory that people talk about. I didn't talk to my brother for two years. Two years, you didn't talk to your brother? I mean, never had that. 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