Russell Simmons has been in author mode for months. After wrapping up his forthcoming memoir, Confessions Of A Hip Hop Yogi: The True Life Story Of Russell Simmons, the Def Jam Recordings co-founder also carved out some time to pen an op-ed for Black Press USA about gun violence in America.
In the wake of Nipsey Hussle’s senseless March 31 shooting death, Simmons says we are “again reminded of the terrible sickness of violence in communities across the United States.”
The Simmons family suffered their own personal tragedy due to gun violence in February when Sutton Tennyson — Angela Simmons’ ex-fiancé and father of her 2-year-old son — was shot and killed outside of his Atlanta home.
But violence typically skyrockets during the summer months and Simmons is imploring anyone and everyone to support their local community initiatives attempting to help the situation.
“We should not wait for another one of our hero’s to be killed before we stand up to take action to prevent this plague of violence from continuing,” he wrote in part. “Nipsey was a great example of what can happen when a young man from our community puts his head down and transcends the traps that are laid by the enemies of our youth in America.”
But how did we get here?
Simmons believes a lack of self-love and the failed war on drugs campaign contributed to the violence rippling across the U.S.
“Some in the black community are suffering from a lack of self-love, a symptom of living in a white supremacist and unequal society,” Simmons tells HipHopDX. “The war on drugs that endorsed and supported the prison industrial complex really watered any seeds of ignorance and violence.
“They took those who were formerly non-violent, diseased drug addicts, locked them up and trained them in violence and ignorance. Then, prisons release them back into our communities without help or hope. That changed parts of our culture, thus poisoning our children with the same ignorance and violence. At the core, we need to promote love and education.”
To do this, Simmons personally supports several programs nationally in an attempt to stop violence before it even starts. These programs focus on the root cause of problems by teaching children how to love themselves through conflict resolution. He’s also using technology to combat the issue.
“I’m shooting content for a conscious delivery network called GDAS Studios,” he says. “It’s a free or cheap app to teach people the sciences of yoga, giving people the tools to get out of the suffering or simply be happier.”
On the flip side, Simmons is acutely aware some people think he escaped to Bali to avoid sexual assault allegations in the U.S., but it was crucial for him to relocate to the Indonesian island to focus on his book.
“A question I hear is, ‘Are you living in Bali? Are you coming back to America?’ I have been living mostly in Bali where I have been writing my book. It’s finished and I’m editing it now. Anyway, I’m always back and forth. I returned to Los Angeles and New York City at least six times in last year or so. I was just there for Aoki’s graduation.”
It’s important to note Simmons hasn’t been convicted anywhere but in the court of public opinion.
“The stories from the 80 and 90s are unrecognizable to me,” he explains. “I have admitted to being unconscious, insensitive and unintentionally callous at times, but I cannot admit to sexual violence. I have never been violent to a woman or a man in my whole adult life. I have taken a total of 10 lie detector tests to prove this.
“I have very different recollections than these accusers. I will not call them liars and get into the mud. I have this example of the right way to go. When the Buddha was faced with things he believed were untrue, he would respond, ‘Is that so?’ I want to be like the Buddha. That’s the best I can offer.”
The longtime Hip Hop mogul is prepared for the controversy his story may bring, but he made it a point to addresses everything in the book.
“My book will be very controversial,” he admits. “It’s written from Bali, a place of meditation and self-reflection. My life growing up as a child, student, gangbanger, drug dealer, drug addict to my ‘escape from the hood mentality’ to lots of untold Hip Hop stories, including Def Jam, Def Comedy and Def Poetry as well as fashion, television and movie biz experiences.
“I also take responsibly for my flaws and misgivings in the past, while exploring experiences and feelings that most men have been afraid to express. The overall intent is to make the world less polarized by sharing, while laying out yogic science with intent to give roadmap for readers ‘out of the suffering that we create in the world’ and into a state of freedom or ‘God consciousness.'”
The money can go to welfare recipients or to dumb shit like walls. Which one’s your pick? The wall?
Yeah moron. You stupid or just blaque? Welfare recipients can die in the street, I want my wall
The wall won’t be so dumb when it helps stem the heavy flood of all the Guatemalan, Salvadorenos and Hondurans from taking over south central.
It’s a shame you are reducing your intelligence to complete ignorance.
You white Mofos best have my reperations chemx so o can get my vest and girl pants like my lover YG NIGGGGGAs
They will do it anyway, might as well get some popcorn while they do it.
I sliced a troll in two once, like debbie
Yall white moods always come g on black bloga6 just to say something stupid..every chance yall get yall will find a black blog just to get another opportunity to show just how much yall are jealous of us..we excel in everything we do and you know it..go find these white blogs when u guys are fucking overdosing and killing each other for insurance money and comment on that dick face…but I bet you love rap music don’t you and you have black friends SMFH…go figure
Yall white moods always come g on black bloga6 just to say something stupid..every chance yall get yall will find a black blog just to get another opportunity to show just how much yall are jealous of us..we excel in everything we do and you know it..go find these white blogs when u guys are fucking overdosing and killing each other for insurance money and comment on that dick face…but I bet you love rap music don’t you and you have black friends SMFH…go figure
There’s no such thing as “gun violence”. There is a such thing as: criminals, gangs, drug use, drug addicts, alcoholics, thieves, imbeciles with anger issues who can access a firearm, BUT the gun itself is an inanimate object and cannot be violent. Only people who look for a gun are violent; get it straight!
Yes but the zio-media always uses the narrative where it’s the guns’ fault – gotta push for more gun control so they can genocide whitey without armed resistance, you know the J.W.O. sleeps their nights better knowing that there is no fear of any revolt from the gentiles.
Silly sausage
Wow. You’re pretty stupid. The zionists don’t like guns or want anyone to have them? LOLOLOLOL. You live in a cave, buddy. It’s YOUR fault your life sucks, not other people.
Eat this black mandungo
Sad ?
So according to Mr.Simmons, we need to start at the core and promote love and education. Very valid point. May I suggest to Mr.Simmons, who is one of the founding fathers of HipHop, that while we start at the core and promote above said things. That we also understand that as a community we have to acknowledge that today’s culture in HipHop, is saturated in mostly violence, total disregard for life and heavy drug abuse. How do we change the hearts and minds of the people when all we feed them is hate and disregard for themselves?
I want to suggest that he doesn’t defraud and rip off black people with his bullshit credit card, and he doesn’t sexually assault any women any more.
Let’s try our hand at a black owned video game studio nah mean positive brothers :6
Look forward to our new game “niggez in distress,” nah mean. It’s a third person shooter where you kill other blacks, nah mean.
where did this racist cockroach crawl out from under? I think me and buddha think alike. they say great minds think alike. so nipsey was a muslim? I just gather that because heaven is being referred to as “paradise”. someone straighten this out here.
Look I need to clear something up here, I’m not an actual racist. When i make Dindu jokes at best I’m poking holes into flawed logic and at worst I’m trolling. If you’re gonna make Dindu jokes you can’t actually be racist because you’re ruining the joke for those of us who do it for fun and not to hurt other people. I’ve been making Dindu jokes for more than a year now on this website and the number of people who are now jumping on the bandwagon is disgusting. You racists need to stop ruining our Dindu jokes with your hatred. Black people I don’t mean any harm please believe me when I say I dindunuffin.
Your a fucking idiot. Why don’t u go upstairs and get in bed with your mom.Fuck u and u dindu jokes. Die slow bitch!!Fuck you and everybody you love hoe.
Can’t you read friend? He clearly said he dindunuffin, that means something you know. Get a clue and stop being so hateful.
This guy gets the joke.
Does that non violence also include this peedo smile having MF not being inappropriate with multiple women? Say hi to Bill Cosby for me homie.
This cuck weirdo sexual predator. LOL. He gets accused of all kinds of innaproproate shit by multiple women, and heads out to south east Asia to pretend to be on some Hare Krishna shit. Just cut those settlement checks and do all your weird sex shit in Bali where it’s legal. Also, please shut your black privileged daughter the fuck up already. We get it, you hypocrite morons don’t like the first amendment. How’s your fellow founding father, and close friend, Africa Bambataa doing?
This campaign on the Hip Hop Cluture economic growth dated back and before Russell Simmons and Kanya West marched on Wall Street ? Song Of The Night Jeezy & Kanya West ( Putting On For City )
Yeah, the name says it all! I am white so I have to be a white supremacist, right?
I have spent my entire life, 60 years, struggling to see everyone’s inside before I look at their outside (color). As witness to this, many of my closest friends have been everything other than white. Well, I am about done doing that thanks to people like Russell Simmons, and others, not reciprocating the same moral behavior, and doing nothing but living in the past.
I would like to know how a discussion about Nipsey Hussel being shot by a black thug over a conversation about who is the worst snitch turns into a statement about white supremacy according to this so called educated author?!?
I’m fed up and sick of trying to defend being a tolerant Christian human being that happens to have been born with lighter skin than some.
If people want to see an end to racism then stop being a racist. Behavior like that of Mr. Simmons does absolutely nothing but cultivate white supremacy.
look at that young woman dressed so sexually provocative. adultery in fact is a buddhist sin. I think a lot of people including those who are buddhist don’t care, really.