The police in New York on Thursday said they were looking into claims that Russell Simmons, the co-founder of the pioneering hip-hop label Def Jam, had a history of violent sexual misconduct after mounting reports accusing him of rape.

A law enforcement official said that the Police Department was conducting a preliminary investigation into the allegations and was eager to hear from victims. But it was unclear whether any suspected conduct could be prosecuted because it was said to have occurred so long ago and was outside the statute of limitations, the source said. (As of 2006, New York State no longer has a statute of limitations on rape in the first degree and several other serious sexual offenses.)

“The N.Y.P.D. has received information regarding allegations involving Russell Simmons in the N.Y.C. area and our detectives are in the process of reviewing that information,” J. Peter Donald, assistant commissioner in the department’s public relations office, said in a statement.

Following a report in The New York Times on Wednesday detailing three alleged rapes in New York by Mr. Simmons from 1988 to 1995, and a subsequent report from The Los Angeles Times that detailed another alleged rape in the city, at least three of the women received calls from police investigators, they said.