Russell Simmons redefines jack-of-all-trades: he grew up in a rough part of Queens, co-founded hip-hop megalabel Def Jam, and then moved on to clothing (ever heard of Phat Farm?). This is all before he became the third richest figure in all of hip-hop, had an incredibly public marriage with Kimora Lee Simmons (who has an incredible closet of clothing), called Courtney Love a "crackhead" and became an outspoken advocate of domestic and international human rights, veganism, and yoga. He's written books, has his own reality show (who doesn't, but still) called "Running Russell Simmons," and now he's being honored with an Excellence in Media Award from GLAAD right here in New York on March 19th. We talked to him before that announcement was made, but he did discuss his love of yoga, veganism, and his thoughts on Kanye West.
How crazy is your schedule in the next 24 hours? In the next few days? It's pretty normal, which means that every couple of hours they have me going somewhere except for an hour and a half when I go to yoga.
What's it like to be a Buddhist in the world of hip hop where the closest thing to Asian culture is the Wu-Tang Clan? The principles of yoga are no different than some of the principles of Christianity. The basis of Christianity or Judaism or any of the other dominant faiths is just faith. I think they're operating from a yogic block, except that yogis and Buddhists look inside for the answers. Despite having studied them in some way, you look inside and seeing how they work for you. The difference for individuals is pronounced in my book where there's a discussion of a steakhouse and the owner of the steakhouse. He was the pillar of the community: fed everybody who was hungry, served the poor, served the community. He goes to heaven. He leaves the steakhouse to his vegan son, who is aware of the damage that the steakhouse is contributing to the environment, the temples, and the karma people who are eating at the steakhouse are committing towards the animals. He cannot get away from the karmic results. So that's the difference that I think yogis: we try to recognize what harm we cause. We kind of have the freedom to make choices for ourselves in ways that some organized religions' participants don't.
That's a really interesting perspective. I never really thought of it that way. You bringing up the steakhouse reminds me that you're also a vegan. What do you eat every day and do you have any favorite vegan restaurants in New York City? Favorite vegan restaurants? Vegetarian Paradise, Caravan of Dreams. The place I eat more than anywhere else is the cafe at Jivamukti. Beautiful cafe, good place to eat food.
And what does your normal eating schedule look like every day? I generally have orange juice in the morning, have a soup at lunch, and I eat out for the third meal: a lot of tempeh. Tempeh bacon, spicy tempeh sauce, greens with avocado. I can't have the same salad too often, but a tempeh bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich and a lot of soup. I don't eat much tofu but a lot of tempeh bacon with mayonnaise, which is pretty much sold everywhere. They have it at practically every Whole Foods.
About your TV show, reality stars often complain about the invasiveness of cameras. Has it bothered you at all? People do difficult stuff with a smile. You know what I'm saying? I do believe that it is a constant creative process to show interesting and fun and authentic versus what is raw and dirty and kind of hurtful. Everybody has those elements as well as the higher elements. It's more of a challenge to be creative and make yourself more able and elastic. It's a cheap natural tendency the way networks do reality TV because it's easier to be less creative. I have plans that are difficult to achieve on television.
You're a pretty influential New Yorker. What other New Yorker do you most admire? Jay-Z. I may not agree with everything he does, but I do admire Mayor Bloomberg. I don't agree with a lot, but I do agree with his courage. It's kind of inspiring to be a politician and be like him. That alone would be a trip. Brother Leo Mohammed for what he thinks about God and charity. He works with Rush Communications. I like Rabbi Schneider with the work he's doing. I watch him dialogue with religions, especially now the work that he's doing with our foundation and with other Rabbis around the world. I like a lot of different people. I can't say who I like the most. It changes by the minute.
If you were given the opportunity, how would you change New York? Oh my goodness. I have to figure out how not to drive the rich out while serving the poor. How would I be able to serve the poor without driving the rich out? How would I be able to create jobs? How would I be able to create equal high quality education? I'd put mediation and yoga in schools where they have no gym classes, which is important at schools. I would focus on education and poverty, and find a way to serve Wall Street. But that's a question that I never think about. I don't have that chance, so I haven't thought about it a lot.
In an interview you said that Kanye West shouldn't apologize to President Bush, which he did on national TV recently. Do you think he should take back his apology? No. It's too late. Let it go. I don't think George Bush is a bad person. I think he makes mistakes, like other politicians. He's not sorry for the invasion of Iraq. You have to consider the 200,000 innocent Iraqis. You have to consider the suffering people in Iraq today. You have to consider the 4,000 or whatever number of troops it was that Americans lost in the invasion compared to the 200,000 innocent civilians. You have to consider all the ramifications of the world economy, the American economy, and ongoing expenditures in Iraq that's taking away from our education. I think it's the nature of politicians to defend their statements and their positions, so I understand it. Now we watch Kanye West, millions of Americans are thinking that's what he's supposed to do. Maybe it could have blown over and people wouldn't care that much. I honestly don't care. And that's okay. That's his job.
You also recently apologized to Courtney Love for calling her a crackhead. How did that go? That was great! When I called her, she said, "What do you want, crackhead? I'm busy." It was out of context. I give her something to say now, it happens. She was very gracious.
Your life is so well-documented nowadays, with the TV show and the news. What aren't we seeing on camera and in the news? We're immune to it and we don't talk about it: the kids that get killed in the communities that aren't newsworthy. The 40 kids that get shot in Chicago doesn't make the news. The amount of violence in these communities and the lack of education and the lack of opportunities, so much of society's job is to correct that. We don't talk about the innocent Africans who die from lack of water every single day. Some say 10 some say 20,000 die for lack of clean water every single day. There is a lack of compassion on the news. I think about the helpless Iraqis never on the news, but no American actually hears about it. We have to think about the harm that we cause. Stop killing 10 million farm animals and destroying our environment. Human suffering, all species suffering, the destruction of mother earth it's all not really news worthy. I like to push the news, say things, and maybe one person will hear it. I had a bunch of producers at my house the other day, making a documentary on this and this. We're still unconscious about our treatment of our animals.There are animals in those scriptures. Read the scriptures. Tremendous karma.
What part of your life aren't we seeing? What happens behind the scenes? Oh my life! We're back to reality! You see pretty much everything. You see that I'm single and struggling a bit since I've been, you know, married a long time. Images with my kids since that's just my reality for now. I've been single for about a year now. Some people think that's destructive to my person. You see my language. You know, I don't care about language. I'm more concerned about the intentions that come through than I am about language. Some people censor words that are hurtful. I don't think language is hurtful compared to the things that some people do every day but don't even think about. I've looked to myself for confirmation of who I am. I think that I'm compassionate. I want to be more compassionate. I think that I'm giving. I want to be more giving. It's what I live with. I want to put meditation in schools, promote vegan lifestyles. Other people should commit to a vegan lifestyle. I hope there will be teachable moments for my people.
Tyson Beckford, who was featured on the show said about you, "You know, you look at him, and you can't figure out his age. He's like the angel of hip hop. The angel of doing it right. You just can't resist him." What's your secret? How do you look so good? I don't look good right now. I'm going to yoga later. I don't think I look so good. When I look in the mirror I see age. I'm an old guy. The difference between me now and thirty years ago, after all that cocaine and all that crap, is I may look healthier now, but I don't look younger. I don't have a secret. I try to be honest. Tyson Beckford is being gracious. Look at him! Perfect specimen that he is. I don't know under what context he said that. That's very nice of him to say those sweet things, but I don't take it to heart.
Do you have any concrete ways in which you want to spread compassion or give back in the way that you were describing earlier? I want yoga to become more popular. For me that's a goal. To get more people to do yoga.
Do you prefer a more active style like vinyasa yoga or something a little slower, more relaxing and healing? I do Jivamukti, it's very aggressive. The best thing about Jivamukti is that a lot of discussion of scripture has led many people to read the scripture as a part of their education. I lived with a girl who became a yogi at Jivamukti, and I know that they study so much scripture. The Bhagavad Gita, the yoga sutras, psychology, the autobiography of a yogi, they study anatomy, they study so much. And then they clock 800 hours of apprenticeship. They they become teachers and they work and spread what they learn. They don't just say, "Get to a pose during practice." It's a nice community where you go with people of like minds, who are interested in enlightenment.
If a New Yorker told you that they wanted to get more involved with yoga, and they really just wanted to start, but they have never done it before, what would you recommend? They should go an open class at Jivamukti and do what everybody else is doing. I think yoga practice is less strenuous than a beginner class. I would go to a beginner class at Jivyamukti, 14th street and Broadway.
With contribution from Surekha Ratnatunga.
