A Review of “Super Rich” by Russell Simmons


Published under: Book Reviews

What do you get when hip hop meets the con­scious­ness movement?

Well, you get Rus­sell Sim­mons’ new book, Super Rich.

And, don’t let the title fool you. Although Rus­sell may be a super rich hip hop mogul, this book is not about cre­at­ing wealth and a lav­ish lifestyle. Instead, Rus­sell pro­vides a road map for his fans to jump start their spir­i­tu­al evo­lu­tion. In describ­ing his jour­ney – from hip hop pro­mot­er to pro­mot­ing spir­i­tu­al well-being — he offers insights into how he ditched his street men­tal­i­ty and sim­pli­fied his life by med­i­tat­ing and prac­tic­ing yoga. Inter­spersed among these obser­va­tions are quotes from many sources includ­ing Gand­hi, Yoganan­da, Lao-Tsu, the Mahar­ishi, and the Bha­gavad Gita.

Super Rich pro­vides read­ers with sim­ple, straight­for­ward prin­ci­ples that will help them grow rich in mind, body, and spir­it. Writ­ing in a down-to-earth street smart style, Rus­sell con­veys the notion of spir­i­tu­al trans­for­ma­tion in terms that the hip hop gen­er­a­tion can relate to. Where else can you find the Law of Attrac­tion explained from the per­spec­tive of the pimp-ho dynam­ic. 😉 By pro­mot­ing what he calls the “2 C’s” — con­scious­ness and com­pas­sion — his goal for each day is to be more awake and less dis­tract­ed. Ulti­mate­ly, he wants his read­ers to cul­ti­vate and main­tain their cre­ative inspi­ra­tion – which is the key to true happiness.

In full dis­clo­sure, I’m a hip hop fan from way back. And, I was lucky enough to see Rus­sel­l’s broth­er’s group, Run DMC, sev­er­al times back in the 80’s just as they began get­ting air­play on MTV.  So, I tru­ly enjoyed read­ing how his per­son­al and busi­ness expe­ri­ences impact­ed his spir­i­tu­al devel­op­ment — both pos­i­tive­ly and negatively.

I high­ly rec­om­mend this book to any­one that’s look­ing for a good read – and per­haps a lit­tle spir­i­tu­al enlightenment.



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One Response to A Review of “Super Rich” by Russell Simmons

  1. Gangs­ta rap, while made famous by West Coast acts such as NWA and Ice T , was prob­a­bly first intro­duced to the pub­lic by none oth­er than Boo­gie Down Pro­duc­tions on their first album, Crim­i­nal Mind­ed . This album fea­tured the song 9mm Goes Bang in 1987 . This, to my knowl­edge was the first gangs­ta rap song put out on wax . The style did not res­onate with the hip hop crowd (not all rap is hip hop and not all hip hop is rap), and was rein­vent­ed for Cal­i­for­nia con­sump­tion the sub­se­quent year by NWA . It then sprout­ed in Hous­ton , Texas with the Geto Boys , most notably Scar­face , and has since spread around the coun­try, includ­ing back to its point of ori­gin, New York City .

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