Russell Simmons a "Nightmare"?
BY FREDRIC U. DICKER
Posted to rec.music.hip-hop on (publication date not stated in the post)
According to the NY Post, the man who founded the movement to get the Rockefeller Drug Law penalties repealed has blasted rap mogul Russell Simmons as a "nightmare" who "destroyed" the movement.
Anthony Papa, co-founder of Mothers of the New York Disappeared, who spent over a decade in state prisons after a Rockefeller Law conviction launched the campaign to have the law repealed.
Simmons, who has gotten a lot of publicity for campaigning against the tough laws, was present at a bill-signing ceremony Tuesday with Gov. Pataki, where he called the reform "a giant step forward." The laws, passed by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in 1973 and 1974, meant that some low-level drug dealers went to jail for longer sentences than rapists or murderers.
Papa, now an artist and author of the recently published "15 to Life: How I Painted My Way to Freedom," says he was responsible for getting Simmons involved in the movement through Andrew Cuomo.
"At first it was a dream come true," Papa told The Post's State Editor Fredric U. Dicker in an e-mail, "but it became our worst nightmare. Simmons the businessman's only concern was to cut a deal - he did not care a hoot about human lives."
Papa is upset that Simmons gave up the initial goal of total repeal in favor of "watered-down reform." He fumes, "Now people like Simmons are patting themselves on their backs along with the governor, [Sen. Majority Leader Joseph] Bruno and [Assembly Speaker Sheldon] Silver . . .. I should have dogged him . . . but figured he would help us. Instead, he destroyed the movement."
Simmons declined to hit back at Papa, saying that in his opinion, the reforms were a "good deal." "In my experience as a businessman, a good deal usually means everybody has to compromise," he says. "I'm sorry everybody's not happy. I'm glad that something was done.
"I'm not the reason the deal got made," Simmons states. "My name is not on the paper. But the governor did give me the pen he used, which is an honor . . . I respect and appreciate the hard work Anthony Papa did. I'm sorry he's upset with me."