EXCLUSIVE: Russell Simmons Accuser Sheri Sher Details Alleged Sexual Assault: He Violated Me, Totally Took What He Wanted

July 17, 2020 by Robin Ayers in Exclusive with 0 Comments

EXCLUSIVE: Russell Simmons Accuser Sheri Sher Details Alleged Sexual Assault – He Violated Me, Totally Took What He Wanted

As the sexual assault allegations against music mogul Russell Simmons continues, TheJasmineBRAND has exclusively spoken with one of his accusers, Sheri Sher.

Sheri Sher, member of Mercedes Ladies, the 1st all-female DJ group, and author of her published novel, Mercedes Ladies, revisited her alleged encounter with him.

The relationship between Russell Simmons and Sheri Sher surrounded a music deal with Mercedes Ladies. After the deal went left, she ran into Russell Simmons with a friend who was interviewing rapper Kurtis Blow. She says,

“That’s the day that the incident happened. He told me he was gonna show me the Rush Production office while she interviewed Kurtis… I figured I was going up there and he was gonna tell me why he did us so dirty. It was painful and hurtful to my mom, everybody. He started talking and said, ‘You know, that’s just business.'”

The Bronx native said shortly after, he allegedly got physical with her.

“Next thing I know, I’m just gonna make this really fast. I was pinned down to the couch…I’ll never forget there was a lamp there and I was trying to grab that lamp. It was kind of weird cause I’m from The Bronx, I grew up fighting; especially as Mercedes Ladies. We had to fight for our right as females to be heard. But I’m sitting there, I’m trying to grab this thing, he’s on top of me…”

She said once she was able to get away, she ran away.

“The elevator took forever. I ran straight down to my friend and I was ‘let’s go!'”

Her friend wanted to know what happened, but Sheri Sher said she was just ready to get out of there. She said once they left, she told her friend,

“He violated me. Like totally, took what he wanted. She’s begging me to call the police, begging me to call my mom, and I just couldn’t do it. I said to her ‘You’re from Long Island, you don’t understand this culture.'”

Russell Simmons

She said she kept the secret for quite some time, but that it impacted her in a major way, especially because she decided to write her story, which was comprised of journal entries she kept since she was a child, as a novel instead of a different format like a memoir.

“It impacted me, and I just didn’t realize it. When I got married, my husband was begging me, like ‘Why are you not coming out with this story?’ Why did you choose a novel? So I had that kind of pressure. At that time, [Russell] was huge. I didn’t want him to block my story from coming out. I was determined to have Mercedes Ladies story indicated in there. I felt it was a lot of power, and I didn’t know how this was gonna play out, so I went the novel way.”

She also said she decided to stay quiet because she hadn’t heard stories of him doing similar things to other women. She said she had another run-in with him after her book was published. By this time, he was with Def Jam.

“I ran into him and he said, ‘Yeah I know you wrote a book and I know there’s some sh*t in there.’ And I said ‘You should be glad, it’s some sh*t in there. You should be counting your blessings because in my mind, I could’ve blew you up, and maybe you wouldn’t have been in Def Jam. He gave me his number and told me to call him. I didn’t call him. In my mind, I was like, I never showed emotions… That’s just the way I was raised.”

Years later, several allegations came out against Russell Simmons in 2017. Sheri Sher said she received several calls from friends and family who knew about her alleged incident with him, and they urged her to tell her story.

She also denied claims that she was only telling her story for money and fame and that his accusers did drugs with him.

“Are you kidding me? I walked my walk and I never used your name. So that wouldn’t make sense… The backlash you get. You don’t get no support as black women, especially going up with somebody with a name, and somebody who looks at him like [Uncle Rush]… I never got high with Russell. I never did drugs with him.

Sheri, who was also involved in the On The Record documentary featuring other Simmons’ accusers shared her thoughts of Oprah Winfrey dropping out of the project ahead of its release.

“I didn’t even know how to take it. I said to her, ‘At least it’s going to Sundance. I’m happy it’s even going to Sundance.’ I feel, one door closes, another one opens.”

As for why Oprah Winfrey backed out she said she believes reactions from Russell Simmons and others played a part.

“Oprah can only get into that. But what my opinion was… was that she was getting a lot of pressure from Russell, she was getting a lot of pressure from 50 [Cent] and a lot of men of color saying ‘Oh here you go taking down another black man.’ So I think it caught so much slack with the Michael Jackson story. I guess it was kind of too much pressure for her.”

Oprah Winfrey has denied speculation that Russell caused her to exit the project.

She ended with reacting to Simmons’ claims that he never violated anyone.

“Russell will try to forget in his own head what he did. He wants to erase that like it hasn’t happened. When you affect someone’s life, and you turn spiritual and you’re into yoga and you’re cleansing and all that… he’s saying things that’s not really making sense.”