Russell Simmons And Shawn Jay-Z Carter Use Their Image To Help

Article written by: Rodrick Rainey
Posted on: November 12, 2006

Urban & Hip-Hop Music has always had influential icons that give back to poverty struck communities and countries.

Thanks to Russell Simmmons, Kimora Lee, and Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter, 2006 will end with two of Hip-Hop fashion & Music’s top influences’ image being used for humanitarian efforts.

Simmons & Lee, founder of Phat Farm & Baby Phat, earlier in 2004 teamed with M. Fabrikant & Sons, to create Simmons Jewelry Co. The duo soon began producing two lines of precious metals & diamonds that were promoted as “conflict free” and benefited a large percentage of communities affected by the diamond trade.

Since the Simmons Jewelry Co. launch, Russell Simmons’ and his Phat Farm label directors have taken it upon themselves to do even more. Doing away with the normal clothing designers ‘brand awareness’, the Phat Farm brand has created a collection of clothing that promotes “Land of Iron & Diamonds: Sierra Leone.” The company hopes to make its wearers and viewing public take interests in what is going on to get the diamonds “glam-life” has made so popular.

The Phat Farm designs can be viewed and purchased from PhatFarm.com or DrJays.com.

A percentage of profits from the Phat Farm clothing sales are believed to be going towards helping victims of the diamond trade and other charitable causes in Africa.

SoJones.com could not confirm this with the Phat Farm company but believe the efforts to be similar to the charity clothing sales drive that RocawearClothing put together in the past. Rocaweardonated a portion of profits from Africa themed clothing designs to charities in Africa working to stop the AIDs crisis.

Soon, Simmons is headed to Africa to see what goes on in the diamond trade industry hands on. The nine-day trip beginning Nov. 26 and ending Dec. 4, will include stops in South Africa and Botswana. Simmons and his delegation team plan to explore how to leverage their relationships in the diamond business to improve educational and economic conditions in distressed African communities.

Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter currently traveling to and from South Africa lending his billion dollar image for an MTV awareness documentary being shot in South Africa.

Donating funds to the people of shanty towns within Angola and Tanzania, the rapper told reporters “To see people living like that in 2006 is hard… (but) I’m loving the way I’m being embraced out here.” Funds from the rapper and those that raised via the charity will be used to help build 10 water pumps for the people of the filmed lands, as they are without sufficient clean water supply.

More information on the bloody diamond trade wars going on in Africa can be found on-line at About.com.

Off-line, more information can be found in the first 3 issues of URB1 Magazine (now SoJones Magazine). The magazine in a collaborated effort with a freelance journalist known as “Lina UrbanEx”, published a continuos 11 page story about the bloody diamond trade that is the cause of many Africans’ deaths.