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Rapper Rev Run knew it was time to leave New York City.
DJ Jam Master Jay, one of Run's
two longtime partners in legendary hip-hop group Run-DMC, had
been shot and killed in Queens in October 2002. His wife and
five kids needed more space to live. And he wanted a break from
city life.
So, several months after his
partner's murder, Rev Run (aka Joseph Simmons) did what many
hip-hop stars continue to do: He moved across the river to the
Bergen County suburbs.
"I had this intuition that told
me to move close to my brother [hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons].
... I wanted to change the pace a bit," said Run, 40, an
ordained minister who mentions God in nearly every sentence.
Run's mansion will be the main
set for MTV's "Run's House," a reality show focusing on the
rapper's home life. The series, which producer Sean "Diddy"
Combs likens to "The Cosby Show," premieres at 10 p.m. Thursday.
| 'RUN'S HOUSE':
When: 10 p.m. Thursday, MTV.
Who: Rev. Run; his wife, Justine; oldest daughter
Vanessa, a student at St. John's University and aspiring
model; daughter Angela, a student at the Fashion Institute
of Technology; and sons JoJo, Diggy and Russell Junior.
Words of wisdom: Each show starts with Run's "words of
wisdom" which he e-mails every morning from his Blackberry
to radio stations, celebrities such as Sean "Diddy" Combs
and others. One of his bromides: "The Best Things in Life
Are Free."
TOP FIVE REASONS CELEBS MOVE TO BERGEN COUNTY
1. Privacy: Houses often have gates and obscuring
shrubs to keep out paparazzi and other prying eyes. In
Alpine, homes do not have mailboxes to prevent fans,
salesmen and others from finding where homeowners live.
Residents have post office boxes.
2. Luxury: Bergen County has many multimillion-dollar
homes, including one with a price tag of $40 million.
These mansions have amenities such as indoor/outdoor
swimming pools, basketball and racquetball courts, spas,
pool houses, multi-car garages that can accommodate
limousines, bowling alleys, home theaters, ponds and wine
cellars.
3. Security: Many homes are equipped with
top-of-the-line home security systems with night-vision
cameras, lasers, radar and other alarm-triggering sensors.
4. Peace and quiet: Compared with the city, traffic is
light in many towns, and street noise is at a minimum. In
towns such as Alpine and Saddle River, homes have enough
surrounding acreage to buffer the sound of neighbors'
parties and lawnmowers.
5. Proximity to the city: Most Bergen County towns are
less than an hour from New York City, where many celebs
have offices.
- Catherine Holahan |
Bergen County may seem an
unusual backdrop for a show about a famous rapper (Run will
release his first solo album, "Distortion," this month). After
all, it has no palm trees or white sandy beaches but rather is
full of quiet towns rich in American history.
Yet Run is just one of several
of hip-hop's top stars who have moved to the area.
Wyclef Jean and Ja Rule are
fellow Saddle River residents. Singer Mary J. Blige reportedly
married record producer Kendu Isaacs at her Cresskill mansion
last year.
Combs has a multimillion-dollar
home in Alpine. So does Lil' Kim, who rapped about the town in
her song "Aunt Dot" ("Come on Shanice, I'm takin' you to my
house in Alpine") - although she'll be calling a federal
detention center in Philadelphia home for the next year.
And, of course, there's Russell
Simmons' 49,000-square-foot, 15-bedroom Saddle River
mega-mansion, famously photographed for a Vanity Fair article
about wife Kimora Lee last spring.
Hip-hop stars move to Bergen
County for the same reasons many people leave New York City for
the suburbs: safety, more room to raise a family, a slower
lifestyle.
"I like Bergen County because
it's nice and quiet," Wyclef Jean said while backstage at
Randall's Island's AmsterJam music festival this summer. "It's
beautiful, and I can get to the city way quick."
Four of Bergen's towns -
Alpine, Franklin Lakes, Saddle River and Englewood Cliffs - made
Forbes' 2005 list of the nation's 150 most expensive zip codes.
Alpine was No. 8, with a median selling price of nearly $1.8
million.
"The proximity to the city, the
privacy factor and the affluence of the area are great draws,"
said Linda Takach, of Saddle River-based Terrie O'Connor
Realtors, adding that celebrities want to live in ZIP codes
populated with people of similar means and, often, fame.
Takach, who specializes in the
kinds of homes featured on "MTV Cribs," said Bergen mansions
typically have security gates, plantings obscuring the house
from prying eyes, grand entrances, fireplaces, lavish bathrooms
with whirlpools and hot tubs, and kitchens with top-of-the-line
appliances.
Most homes also have at least
two acres of land - allowing for pools, tennis courts, multi-car
garages, basketball courts, theaters, spas and other luxury
amenities.
In the '90s, the county's
wealthiest residents were more likely to be found in newspaper
business pages than in hip-hop music magazines such as Vibe or
The Source.
But that has changed as hip-hop
has become mainstream and moguls such as Russell Simmons and
Combs have branched out into fashion, movies and television.
And now, said real estate agent
Mary Lenk, who is selling Eddie Murphy's $30 million mansion in
Englewood, the rich and famous from all industries want homes in
affluent Bergen County towns.
Lenk, of Burgdorff Realtors in
Cresskill, sold Diddy his Alpine home for more than $6 million
last summer. The house reportedly has a pool with a waterfall,
indoor racquetball and basketball courts, a wine cellar and a
six-car garage - in addition to eight bedrooms and nine
bathrooms.
"Celebrities like luxury, they
like elegance ... they like home theaters," she said.
In Rev Run's case, he also
likes the malls.
"There is the Short Hills mall
... the Garden State mall ... sometimes I go to the Palisades
mall," he said. "It's cool."
E-mail: holahan@northjersey.com |
