Reverend Run Defends Oprah Winfrey  4/2/07

Former Run D.M.C. rapper Joseph 'Rev Run' Simmons has defended Oprah Winfrey against claims the media mogul is prejudiced against rap music.

Winfrey came under fire from the likes of Ludacris and 50 Cent in 2005, after the Money Maker star appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to promote his new movie, Crash.

While discussing the film's racial subject matter with the other cast members, Winfrey singled out Ludacris and interrogated him about his seemingly misogynistic lyrics - only to later cut his response from the final edit.

Yet Simmons, who made a special appearance on the show with his family to promote his reality TV show Run's House, believes Winfrey simply acts in the interests of her target audience.

He tells AllHipHop, "I don't know if it's hip-hop that she has a big problem with. I think that she has a problem with some of the images that might not fit the people that watch her show.

"She does things that are close to what she thinks her audience will like."