Russell Simmons Developing Hip-Hop Broadway Show, National Tour?

According to Billboard, Russell Simmons says he wants to bring his own brand of Hip-Hop to Broadway and beyond.

"What ROCK OF AGES did with rock, we're planning on doing with hip-hop," Simmons' business partner and president of Def Pictures Jake Stein told the site.

Simmons and Stein want to develop a musical that will tour the country's "iconic hip-hop venues" à la Run-D.M.C.'s RAISING HELL tour in the late '80s.

Simmons' broader goal is to "reintegrate the entertainment business, which, in his view, has drifted back into a segregated state".

He has also shot several TV pilots as part of a first-look deal for HBO, including a project with 12 YEARS A SLAVE director Steve McQueen, and a rap opera titled CAIN AND ABEL, written by Omar Epps and rapper Sticky Fingaz.

Among Simmons' screen producing credits are Def Comedy Jam: Primetime, The Nutty Professor, Gridlock'd, How to Be a Player, The Industry, Def Poetry, Brave New Voices, Run's House, Daddy's Girls, Stand-Up at El Rey, The Ruckus, Hungry and more. Simmons is best known as the co-founder of the hip-hop music label Def Jam.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride