(AllHipHop News) For much of the 1990’s if you wanted to discover the next rising African-American comedy star all you had to do was tune into Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam on HBO. That Simmons executive produced program showcased some of the biggest stand-up comedians in the business like Bernie Mac, Dave Chappelle, Adele Givens, and Cedric The Entertainer.
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The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Simmons is now joining forces with HBO again. The “Godfather of Hip Hop” signed a two-year “first look” deal to create and develop new projects.
This means that HBO will get the option of reviewing any proposed projects developed by Simmons, but if the cable channel decides not to pick up the project, Simmons can then shop it to other networks.
Simmons is most well-known for co-founding the seminal Hip Hop record label Def Jam. He also produced the HBO programs Def Poetry and Brave New Voices.
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