Russell Simmons did not appreciate Geraldo Rivera's recent claim that hip-hop is "very destructive culturally." Cornered by TMZ, the rap mogul rebutted the permanently smiling talk-show host and Celebrity Apprentice runner-up, calling him "Juh-raldo" and claiming that the only reason Rivera was speaking up was to "get himself relevant."
"Geraldo, the prison industrial complex got people so twisted," Simmons said. "For 40 years, they've been locking up diseased drug addicts, educating them on criminal behavior and dumping them back in the hood. The poetry and the reflection [in hip-hop] are what come from that jail culture; that's obvious...The media is really dumb to let that man [speak]. He needs to be progressive and do good work to help people. And now he's a talking head."
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