@ Media & Money: Keynote: Russell Simmons, Founder, Rush Communications

russell simmonsThe final event at the Media & Money Conference was a keynote interview with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, whose business empire is approaching conglomerate status. Much of the conversation was general, about his business philosophy and social outlook. Among his many ventures: the startup Global Grind, a kind of hip-hop themed NetVibes, which he funded with help from Accel’s Jim Breyer (now strongly associated with his Facebook investment).

As for why he launched the site now, Simmons said the timing coincided with the end of a five-year non-compete clause associated with the sale of his former site 360HipHop.com to BET. This time, he has the funding and the experience to succeed where 360hiphop.com failed. He’s clearly more than a figurehead for the site, as he talked up what the site offers: “You have a bunch of RSS feeds… The home page is kind of like NetVibes,” and there’s a relevance engine that helps people find content related to what they’re consuming. His example: if you see an article about the rapper Saigon, it won’t bring you related news on what’s now known as Ho Chi Minh City. (Just to note, even Google (NSDQ: GOOG) puts the rapper above the city.) The company does plan to be ad supported, though it’s also looking serve the hip-hop industry in some way.

He added that he had considered launching a cable channel or a magazine, but didn’t like the business prospects. He was similarly dour on the the music business, despite the fact that he’s “listening to more music than ever before.”

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