Career
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 "DMC" 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 by E. Bernard Jordan, Simmons's spiritual mentor. 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. The new $325,000 Phantom had been a gift from Reverend Run as a "thank you" for Jordan's mentoring support.
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. Run DMC also is in the rock and roll hall of fame .
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-DMC's 1980s hits using samples like Aerosmith's hit "Walk This Way"
Rev Run appears on the MTV series Run's House, a reality show revolving around his everyday life with his family.
In 2002, he appeared on a special "Rap Stars" edition of The Weakest Link, and was the third one voted off.
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
On September 8, 2007, Rev Run was honored as a BMI Icon at the annual BMI Urban Awards.
The Weekend of September 17 and 18 of 2011, Rev Run made a Special Guest appearance at Bay Area Fellowship with Pastor Bil Cornelius in Corpus Christi, Texas Bay Area Fellowship Church
During the month of October 2011, Rev Run was a special guest of Fellowship Church based out of Grapevine, Texas.
Read more about this topic: Joseph Simmons
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