Hip-hop founding father and entrepreneur Russell Simmons shed some light on the mystery surrounding his split with Def Jam Records founder Rick Rubin recently in an interview with DJ Vlad, posted Sunday on his Vlad TV YouTube channel.
Simmons gave a deceptively simple reason for one of the most momentous partnership dissolutions in music history, saying the two simply drifted apart as their priorities changed over time.
"Well, if he's making Slayer and I'm over here making Oran 'Juice' Jones where's the common thread?" he said in response to a direct question about the break up. "We should have been in the studio making Run DMC, that's what I think. We should've made the next Run DMC album. He wasn't really ready to make Public Enemy because they didn't want anybody near them."