Ever since his family’s tv show ended well over a decade ago it’s been hard to keep up with the life of Russy aka Russell Simmons. Turns out it’s because he’s been dealing with a lot in his life and has chosen not to share the details with members of the public.
Russy first came into the spotlight in 2005 when he appeared on his family’s TV show Run’s House. From 2005 to 2009 we got to learn little details about his life here and there even though he was still a child. And as the show ended he decided to take the private route unlike most of his family members.
Trying To Live A Private Life
Since the end of Run’s House in 2009 Russy has been involved in a lot of things. With his biggest project being his appearance on Rev Runs Around the World and Rev Run’s Sunday Suppers. After both shows ran their due course, Russy moved on to other things that don’t involve reality tv. Although he’s sticking to his roots in the entertainment industry.
Over the years he’s been involved in things like rapping, singing, acting, and screenwriting. Russy was signed to Jam Records and has released a handful of songs like Someone Like You, The Christmas Song, and Find Your Love. He uploaded all of his songs to his YouTube channel so that everyone can have easy access to them.
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And currently he has about 3.5K subscribers on his channel which isn’t bad considering his catalog. The only problem is he’s had 3.5k subscribers for the past decade. He hasn’t uploaded anything on his channel since 2014. Russy’s once-bright music career has been stagnant in the last couple of years. And for everyone wondering why, he’s yet to give a reason.
But according to the rumors, Russy hasn’t been releasing any songs because he made a decision to step away from the spotlight in general. Apparently, this is because he’s been a victim of bullying online on multiple occasions. At first glance, it might not seem like it but this has apparently been Russy’s reality for the longest time.
The Target of Bullying
He revealed this in 2020 when he did something that completely shocked just about everyone. After being silent for years, four years ago Russy spoke about how much he hated social media and explained that this was the reason why he barely had any kind of social media presence. Apparently, the reason why he hates social media so much is that people online love shaming others so much.
He used Lizzo as an example and talked about how she was attacked online just because of her looks which just isn’t really fair. No one should be attacked or made to feel bad because they look a certain way. Russy spoke in length about his opinion of social media but forgot to talk about one important thing. How social media had also affected his life.
If it wasn’t for a random tweet no one would have probably gotten this piece of information. In this tweet, a picture from Russy’s Instagram page was placed next to a picture of his older brother Diggy. The caption said that it was impossible for Russy and Diggy to be brothers since they apparently don’t look anything alike.
Online Trolls
Because of the way people were making fun of him and his picture, Russy didn’t waste any time deleting the picture from his Instagram page. This was when people started coming to his defense, as everyone believed he wouldn’t have gone as far as deleting his post if the comments that were being made hadn’t hurt his self-esteem.
Then he had people rally around him saying that he looked amazing and shouldn’t let the opinion of others get to him. Since then, Russy has posted fewer and fewer pictures of himself, at one point in time he even stopped posting online altogether.This has just made it harder for him to pursue a career that thrives off social media.
Coupled with the fact Russy just doesn’t like being the center of attention. Even though Russy has tried to avoid all forms of attention and drama online, somehow the drama always finds its way to his doorstep.
A while back, his dad posted a throwback picture of him while wishing him a happy birthday. Talking about how he couldn’t believe Russy was turning 25 already. Sadly, some people took this as an opportunity to make fun of Russy yet again. There were some comments underneath his dad’s post talking about how Russy looked 12 rather than 25.
This time around Russy didn’t make any comment, neither did he ask his dad to take down the picture.
Controversy Again
Proving that he has grown a bit immune to his online bullies which is a great thing because the last time Russy allowed his bullies to get to him, it didn’t end well for him. In 2019, Russy was at the center of a huge controversy when people accused him of trying to lighten his skin color because he didn’t like being black.
This happened after some people decided to dig up old pictures of him from 2013 and compare them to some pictures he had posted of himself back in 2019. When both pictures were placed side by side it did look like Russy had gotten lighter but so did the quality of the device used to take his 2019.
However, people didn’t care and decided to call Russy out for trying to make himself look like someone else.
Russy did have some support after some people came out to talk about how the lighting was different in both pictures and how some people actually looked lighter during winter. Still, this wasn’t enough so Russy was forced to comment on the situation. In his words, he had been battling with eczema for the longest time and that was why he actually looked much lighter than he did years ago.
Finding His Way
After this incident, Russy slowly backed away from the online space and this was what started the rumor of his staying off social media because of bullies. But from the looks of things recently, you can say that Russy has changed even though it’s not very obvious thanks to his limited social presence.
Now, he’s channeling his energy towards things that matter to him only. And rapping is no longer part of those things. From his Instagram page, it seems he’s no longer into music as his bio just reads script writer and actor.He’s slowly starting to warm up to social media with almost 50k followers and 14 posts on Instagram.
With time we can only hope to see more of Russy and his future plans.
