(Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Russell Simmons has welcomed celebrity friends to his Bali residence for the last few years. The music mogul previously revealed he’s been living on the Indonesian island since 2018.
Nearly every time a celebrity pops in on Simmons, the star ends up in a social media firestorm. Now, Russell Simmons is finally addressing the backlash his A-list visitors face.
Simmons responded to the ongoing backlash in a video statement. He sat cross-legged in a casual black T-shirt and shorts while facing the camera. Russell began his clapback, as chronicled by Live Bitez, by addressing his own community.
“Black people, did you forget that I got 10,000 Black men out of jail? And that I changed the factory farming industry forever. And that I registered more of you to vote than probably anybody you know. And I worked for Black Lives Matter and every movement that’s helped our people, all the women’s rights, even gay rights. Movements that I did so much work for to let them demonize me in such a way that my friends cannot visit me without you attacking them,” he said. “But yet you stand by Donald Trump. Knock it off.”
As mentioned, according to his own announcement, Taraji P. Henson was his latest celebrity friend to slide down on him earlier this month. It marked her second publicized visit to see Simmons. Before then, it was Usher.
It’s been heavily speculated that Russell fled the United States amid sexual assault lawsuits and years-long accusations against him. However, in May, he cleared the air on his travels to the U.S. during an interview with AllHipHop.
“People saying that I somehow can’t come home when I’m there all the time wears on you,” Simmons told the outlet at the time. “It wears on me after a while to keep hearing the same narrative, which is false. I’m always in L.A.; I’m always in New York and Miami. And I’ve never had any reason to feel unsafe in America.”
In his recent live-streaming session, Russell reiterated that he’s free to move from Bali to the United States and back. In fact, he claimed he’ll be in New York next week and admitted he phones the paparazzi himself every time he visits. “This idea that I’m hiding is stupid.” He clarified that he works out of NYC often but lives in Bali to “heal people.”
“My last chapter is to heal people and to give them spiritual, physical and mental rejuvenation. So, just attacking people who visit me, and you have no idea who all have been here, but what you did to a few of the people who visit me. Are you under some kind of tricknowlogy? Are you lost? I’m your friend, Black people and I’ve been my whole life a supporter of all the initiatives that lift you up.”
Swipe below to see all of his comments on the matter.
According to Billboard, in November 2017, a former employee and a writer accused Russell of sexually violating them. By December of that year, nine women stepped forward in different media interviews. Four alleged Simmons raped them, while five described sexual misconduct incidents. In January 2018, one of his accusers, Jennifer Jarosik, filed a $5 million lawsuit against him, but it was dismissed by April.
By July 2018, another woman accused the mogul of raping her in his apartment in November 1990. At the time, he strongly denied the accusation and similar past allegations in a statement to Billboard.
“I have respectfully, factually, and comprehensively denied the charges of sexual violence against me,” he said. “From the very first allegation in October, I have provided statements of witnesses who testified to my innocence some thirty years ago. Most witnesses from years back were and remain afraid for their standing, their families and their professions. It is certainly true that there were and remain hurdles to calling out abusers. I have said from day one that I support and advocate truth telling and holding abusers fully to account,” Russell Simmons said in 2018.
He moved to Bali at some point in 2018, but the allegations didn’t slow down. In November 2020, a judge dropped a $10 million sexual battery lawsuit against him due to the statute of limitations.
Most recently, in February 2024, a former Def Jam employee sued him in a New York Federal Court for rape and sexual assault in the 1990s, per Billboard.
Russell Simmons ended his recent video statement about his friends by saying: “Knock it off. I love you; I just don’t want my friends attacked. So just leave my friends alone; don’t attack them for visiting me.”
