Russell Simmons (BOOK REVIEW)
Russell Simmons
The “Success through Stillness” Interview
with Kam Williams
Headline: Rap Mogul Reaps Benefits from Meditation Regimen
Master
entrepreneur and visionary Russell Simmons has influenced virtually all aspects
of business and media: in music with the cofounding of the immensely successful
Def Jam Recordings; in the fashion industry with the trailblazing Phat Pharm,
Baby Phat, Run Athletics, and Def Jam University clothing lines; in television
with HBO’s Def Comedy Jam and Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry; on Broadway
with the Tony Award-winning stage production Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam; in
digital with All Def Digital, All Def Music, and Narrative; as well as numerous
other ventures in the financial services industry, mobile communications, and
philanthropy.
A native
New Yorker currently residing in Los
Angeles, Mr. Simmons is the proud
father of two daughters. Here, he talks about his new book: Success through
Stillness: Meditation Made Simple.
Kam
Williams: Hi Rush, thanks for the time.
Russell Simmons:
My man, how you feel?
KW:
Great! How about you brother?
RS:
I’m doing fine. I’m still moving around, Kam. I’m in Texas at the South by Southwest Music
Festival announcing All Def Digital’s partnership with Samsung. We’re building
a platform to put a song out every week for 52 weeks called ADD52.
KW:
Why’d you start All Def Digital?
RS:
To give all this black talent a chance by exposing them to Hollywood, which is
very segregated. Hollywood is full of very liberal people, but it still has an
infrastructure that needs to be broken. So, my idea is to integrate black stars
into mainstream stars. It hasn’t been explored properly. That’s what Im doing
in Hollywood.
And that’s what All Def Digital is doing. I’m probably going to shoot TV 10
pilots this year.
KW:
Any ideas you care to share at this point?
RS:
One’s a detective show for J.B. Smoove. Another’s a remake of a classic black
movie that would star Chris Tucker. And I have a pilot called The Re-Education
of Oliver Cooper starring the white kid from Project X where follows a black
girl to a black university, like in Legally Blonde. I have so many fun
projects. Another one, written by the guy from Friday [DJ Pooh], has kids from Compton growing weed in a
house in Bel Air.
KW:
Recently, Ride Along, did very well, despite its having a
black principal cast. It was #1 at the box-office a few weeks in a row.
RS:
Yeah, but 86% of its audience was made up of people of color. That tells you
that the full potential of many black stars won’t be realized until their audiences
are fully integrated. No one wants to sell to just 12% of the population for
the entire length of their careers. It creates a difficult and less-profitable
environment. But Hollywood
has lived with that limiting mantra, and only a few black stars have managed to
break through. It’s a whole world which needs to be changed. Fortunately, Hollywood is open to
change. It’s just a question of how to go about doing it.
KW:
Good luck with that. Let’s talk about your new book. AALBC’s
Troy Johnson asks: How long have you been practicing meditation and how has it
helped you?
RS:
20 years. Sitting in stillness has got to be the greatest asset I have in terms
of attaining happiness. Nothing increases happiness like quiet time. The truth
is, the only moments that make you laugh or happy are seconds of stillness. At
the shock of a joke, everything disappears but the present moment. When you
read a book, and it’s really, really beautiful, you’re so engaged you forget to
breathe. If you’re in a car accident, and everything moves slowly, you can be
shocked into the present. The past and the future disappear. Here’s another
great example. If you play basketball, you get into the zone. You can’t miss.
That’s the expansive mindset we’re all seeking. But that only comes when the
mind is quiet and separate from the noise. And the greatest tool to eliminate
the noise is meditation.
KW:
Environmental activist Grace Sinden says: With people connected increasingly to their "apps"
and the 24-hour cycle of often-disturbing news, it is more necessary than ever
to have quiet and Stillness in our lives. She asks: Did you write this
book somewhat as a reaction to the noisy, always-connected culture we live in?
RS:
The always-connected culture isn’t as much a contributor as Grace might think.
The nervous mind, the monkey mind, will create its own noise. It doesn’t need a
new toy. Sometimes, a new toy, a new technology, will focus you. The world is
always trying to draw you out, so you always have to remember to go in. I
didn’t write this book in reaction to the 24-hour news cycle, because “be still
and know” has been taught for thousands of years before the development of this
technology. The research shows that if you meditate, the mind becomes still,
and they can see the functionality and gray matter in the brain increase, the
nervous system calm, the immune system improve and a reduction in stress. So,
quiet time is the key. We have hundreds of thousands of kids around the country
meditating through the David Lynch Foundation. What I want to do with this book,
and I’m giving all the profits to charity, is to teach people to meditate. All
it takes is a little bit of patience. It’s a simple guide. And the more people
meditate, the more it increases the positive vibrations turning the planet into
a positive, happy place. The more you do that, the greater service you are to
God. I introduced Oprah and Ellen to their TM [Transcendental Meditation]
teachers. They both thanked me, and spoke publicly about it, which is great
because they can spread the word. Ellen has been a great supporter. Russell
Brand has done the same. I’ve shared meditation with a lot of hip-hop artists,
inmates, and returning war veterans with PTSD, as well. I feel like this
dharma, this service is part of my job.
KW:
Attorney Bernadette Beekman gives a shout out from a fellow
Hollis native!
She
asks: What were you most astonished to discover as a result of
meditating?
RS:
Coming out of my first yoga class, I was astonished that there were nothing but
hot girls there. Just 55 girls, Bobby Shriver, who’s a buddy of mine, and
myself. I came out of class, I was so high. I been sober 26 years, but I’m an
ex-druggie. I want to talk a little bit abut two things: clarity and
cloudiness. Both of them quiet the mind. One quiets it, the other numbs it. either
way, there’s less thought, and the less thought, the more happiness. And when
the mind is totally still, there’s only bliss. I got a piece of that reality
from my first yoga class, from smiling and breathing in every difficult pose. I
went, “Oh my God! I’m clear! I love this!” If I keep doing this, I’m going to
give away my money. But a more happy mind leads to quietness and clarity. And
that clarity helps you have a greater capacity to do more and to become more
successful and more giving. So, running all my different companies has turned
out to be a lot easier because I mediate twice a day and go to yoga every day.
KW:
Bernadette also says: I sat a 10-day Vipassana course many
years ago and afterwards, I was encouraged by a film called Doing Time, Doing
Vipassana which was about meditation courses offered in prisons. The results
were very encouraging. She asks: What do you think of meditation methods taught
to prisoners?
RS:
I think it’s very important. I’ve gone into prisons to meditate with inmates.
It’s something I plan to do with Tim Robbins soon. I owe him a call about that.
KW:
Bernadette asks: If you could focus all of your resources to
solve one problem in our society, what one would it be?
RS:
At the core of everything that is hurtful to humanity is a lack of
consciousness. Unconscious behavior is at the core. Think of the 40 billion
animals we abuse and eat who are born into suffering. It’s a karmic disaster. An
animal products diet is like smoking 20 cigarettes a day. What I would do to
change this planet is have everyone meditate and look inside. Then we’d have a
happier, more service-oriented, less-needy world.
KW:
Editor Lisa Loving says this book looks great. I know a crabby
person whose life changed when he started meditating. She asks: Are there ever limits to an individual's ability to follow
your advice? Are there certain kinds of stress, difficulty or even grief that
is so staggering that it becomes impossible to cope with through meditation?
RS:
Meditation helps everything, Lisa. But I couldn’t guarantee that someone could
get off their medication. But I suspect that meditation instead of Ritalin
would change the life of any kid with ADD.
KW:
Editor/legist Patricia Turnier says: Some people are reluctant to try psychotherapy.
They will instead deal with their stress and pain by taking
drugs and/or alcohol. Do you think that meditation can be beneficial to
them?
RS: Absolutely, because when you sit quietly and look inside, things that seem so difficult on the outside become a lot easier to digest. Concerns that might’ve caused a lot of anxiety just come and go. That happens to me everyday. I watch my thoughts, not only on the mat, but all through the day.
RS: Absolutely, because when you sit quietly and look inside, things that seem so difficult on the outside become a lot easier to digest. Concerns that might’ve caused a lot of anxiety just come and go. That happens to me everyday. I watch my thoughts, not only on the mat, but all through the day.
KW:
Troy
Johnson asks: Are you happy about how hip-hop has evolved over the past 40
years?
RS:
It hasn’t changed that much at all, actually. It’s been great. It keeps getting
better in some ways.
KW:
Troy
says: Many music fans think that the best hip-hop music is being produced by
underground artists. Are there any you’re excited about?
RS:
At All Def Digital we’re developing tons of them.
KW:
Larry Greenberg asks: Have you and the artists you work with
benefited from the turmoil in the music industry?
RS:
I don’t see it.
KW:
Professor Hisani Dubose has a couple of questions for her
music technology majors at Bloomfield
College. How has the
internet changed the music industry? What do artists have to do these days to
get a record deal?
RS:
You don’t need a record deal. You’ll have the industry begging for you, when you
build your buzz. I signed Jay-Z because he was on fire. I wasn’t a genius. The
record was great. I put it on The Nutty Professor soundtrack and we signed him.
People build themselves up before you even have to deal with them. It’s always
marketeers building their own careers. Nowadays, if you’re a great artist, you
don’t have to leave the house, which is a really big difference. You’re closer
to the artist. And the artist can be closer to their artistry without having to
always worry about branding themselves or building something image-wise.
KW:
The music maven Heather Covington question: What was the last song you listened
to?
RS:
“My Nigga” by YG.
I
probably shouldn’t even say that, because everybody gets mad. But it is my
favorite record. I was just listening to it in the car. I live in hip-hop. I
don’t find it to be offensive. I know there’s a debate about it. I probably
shouldn’t say this to national black distribution, but they have to live with
it, too. They ain’t gonna change young people. All they’re going to do is make
‘em say it more. That particular YG record is the biggest record, and I like
it. That’s not helpful, is it? It’s the truth. I’m a full disclosure kind of
person. Another song I just listened to was “Mere Gurudev,” a devotional record
by Krishna Das.
KW:
The bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book
you read?
RS:
I read “The Yoga Sutras” every day. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1938477073/ref=nosim/thslfofire-20
And
also the “The Bhagavad Gita.” http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1586380192/ref=nosim/thslfofire-20
Those
two books sit by my bed. And I’m currently reading “The China Study.”
KW: When you look in the mirror, what
do you see?
RS:
different reflections at different times. I really, really try to be a good
servant. It makes me happy when I’m a good giver without expectations.
KW:
What are you up to next?
RS:
The main thing is I’ll be going to Chicago
to work with [Mayor] Rahm Emmanuel to put meditation in the schools.
KW:
Thanks again for the interview, Rush, and
best of luck with the book, the TV shows, and the meditation initiative.
RS:
It’s a great pleasure as always talking with you, Kam.
To order a copy of Success through Stillness, visit:
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