Russell Simmons took to his blog to make the following remarks about Dame Dash:"Ain’t No Nigga Like..Dame DashHip-Hop Chronicles: A Blog by Russell Simmons
Sitting in the audience last night at the crowded 37th Street ArtsTheater in NYC, I witnessed another great Damon Dash contribution, onethat takes hip-hop culture to another significant level ofaccomplishment.
Sony Entertainment and Damon Dash produced the “Hip-Hop Monologues:Inside the Life and Mind of Jim Jones.” It’s a fantastic show thatportrays the evolution of hip-hop through the life of Jim Jones.
I have to say: Damon Dash is a hip-hop genius who should never be……underestimated. I have watched Dame’s growth, development andentrepreneurship over the years, not from a distance, but throughfirst hand observation. He was one of the creative forces behindRoc-A-Fella Records, the architect of Rocawear Fashions, he madesignificant, culturally relevant movies with Dash Films and has madeother creative cultural statements through Dash Enterprises. Andanother great note… He spent a small fortune developing a majortalent and women’s brand through supporting his wife to the hilt !!
In our early days, Lyor Cohen and I used to shout at Damon. And Damonwould shout back. Then we would hug and go handle our business Thatwas our way of communicating. Eventually, Lyor got older and I didmore yoga and we both stopped shouting so much . Dame eventually madea few bad choices and a few things went sour. We know haters love aman who’s been hot to catch a lil cold. Hate spreads. But like TonyMontana said “Two Quaaludes ….. And they gonna love him again.”
So haters, it really doesn’t matter about your blogs from thesidelines. Dame’s gonna help heat the economy again!! But if hegot hit by a truck today remember this: Dame’s a giver by nature.That’s why he has already received so much. He was the businessleader, the Architect, and one of the creative forces that builtRoc-A-Fella Records into an empire. I remember that it was Damon whocame to my office, after we signed Jay-Z to be on The Nutty Professorsoundtrack, with a bag of cash ready to put his money where his mouthwas. :-). But the record “Ain’t No Nigga…” didn’t need his cash(hit from The Nutty Professor). It was a masterpiece and so was hisartist. Jay-Z: the greatest rapper of all time. I saw countlessdisplays of vision and faith all the way up to and beyond his struggleto convince everyone, when no one else believed him, of the artistryand the genius of Kanye West.
In order to succeed in this business you need to have both a businesssense and great creative instincts (The latter is intuitive andcannot be learned). Damon has, once again, proven that he is a greatinnovator with amazing vision.So now he is helping Jim Jones in a powerful manner that combinestheir collective experiences around being born and raised in Harlem bytaking the culture to the 37th Street Theater, off-Broadway in NewYork City, with a live hip-hop band, dance, multimedia and thedynamics of theatrical stage presentations focusing on the strugglesof life through the lens of hip-hop. I have two pieces of advice: 1)respect Dame’s gangster 2) go see the play immediately".
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