A Review of “Super Rich” by Russell Simmons

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.