Russell Simmons Denies Gay Rumors

Russell Simmons recently addressed rumors of living a gay lifestyle -- brought forth by gay rapper Caushun, who claimed that the hip-hop mogul lives a closet homosexual lifestyle and planned to expose it -- shooting down the rumors flat out.

Cashun -- who was recently exposed by his manager as a fraud with no musical talent -- claimed to have acquired Simmons' Blackberry, which held secret "steamy message" between him and another man. But, in an interview with the Dallas Voice, Simmons dismissed the rumor, saying Cashun was using the allegations as a tool to gain fame.

"Which came first? Me losing my Blackberry after being single for a year-and-a-half or Caushun trying to expose me for being gay?" Simmons questioned during the interview.

"Don't drag me into an interview that's lower than my person -- a catty-ass he-said, she-said... I believe gay people deserve dignity," he continued. "Caushun doesn't mean nothing to me. He's not worth it. Essentially he wants to make himself famous. I thought he was a good rapper."

Although Simmons denied he was gay, he did say he is supportive of gay rights. "Listen, I'm not gay," he said. "If I was, I would have the gift of another burden, and I would probably be instantly out. I fight for gay rights all the time. How about that?"

Ivan Matias, Cashun's manager, blew the lid off the gay rapper's career earlier this year, when he said in an interview with Allhiphop.com that he had actually created the identify for the rapper, and wrote and performed all the material that originally got the Cashun character a buzz.

Matias revealed that Caushun was created when, as a prank, he called a hip-hop station and pretended to be a flamboyantly gay rapper. Matias, a straight man, then recorded demos and passed them to radio stations as the work of Caushun. The lie then snowballed, and Matias enlisted Jason Herndon to portray the public face of Caushun.

As his buzz grew, Cashun caught the attention of Kimora Lee Simmons, who almost signed him to her Baby Phat Records imprint. That's when Herndon tried to push Matias out, but after he was arrested for identity theft, the lies began to unravel and his rap career halted.

Late last year, MediaTakeOut.com revealed that Cashun -- or at least the face of Cashun -- was planning to release a tell-all book titled The Gay Superhead that would expose several hip-hop superstars as closet homosexuals, including Kimora and Russell Simmons. But, obstacles got into the way because Cashun had signed a confidentiality agreement with Kimora that would bar him to speaking publically about anything he witnessed during the time he spent with her.

To date, no further information has surfaced regarding the book and Cashun seems to have vanished, but Matias told MediaTakeOut that he did not sign the same agreement and claimed he had enough to go ahead with the book himself.