Russell
Simmons
called out New York CityMayor Rudy Giuliani yesterday (May 31) for squashing his plans
to have an event in City Hall Park. Russell is claiming he was
denied the park, because he made fun of Giuliani in recent advertisements
for his website, 360hiphop.com. The ad featured a Giuliani look
a like, with the words: "I Am Not Hip-Hop." The site
is partnered with Rap The Vote 2000. Simmons also said the Mayor
may have terminated the event because he is not interested in
promoting voter registration in the Hip-Hop community.
The city is taking
a different stance against Russell and his site, claiming that
he is just trying to draw extra publicity to the site, and that
he is not interested in voter registration. The New York Post
claimed an insider said "The Mayor doesn’t even know who
Russell Simmons Is” and that he was trying to bait the Mayor into
a conflict, then use the conflict to plug his site. Simmons waited
until Tuesday to apply for a permit, according to the New York
Post, and that left no time to negotiate. Simmons had denied that
he was even offered to pay for the park.
“I can’t tell you
how much it both saddens and sickens me that Mayor Giuliani would
choose to thwart our efforts to involve more young people in the
political process,” said Simmons. “It’s just further testament
that Giuliani has little regard for a major segment of the population
he’s supposed to represent. In fact, we repeatedly invited him
to participate, to show that he too is for bipartisan efforts
to politicize young New Yorkers. This is our mayor’s response
— his office pulling our permit. And this is why we need to register
voters by the thousands.”