Rap icon shares his wisdom with student body

As rapper turned preacher Joseph "Rev Run" Simmons walked on stage Tuesday night someone in the audience shouted, "Who's house?" The audience replied in near unison, "Run's House!"

Dressed in his signature black suit and white clergy collar, Simmons, one half of pioneering rap group Run-DMC, stressed to a packed Trabant Multipurpose Room that confidence and spirituality are the keys to success in life.

"Pray like everything depended on prayer and work like everything depended on work," Simmons says.

The event, titled "Words of Wisdom with Rev Run," was a part of Black History Month celebrations, and was sponsored by the Cultural Programming Advising Board. Yasser Arafat Payne, assistant professor of Black American Studies, moderated the event and interviewed Simmons with student generated questions.

During the hour-long talk, Simmons spoke about his life, career and hit reality show "Run's House," and gave his signature brand of advice to the crowd.

Simmons first reminisced about growing up in the Hollis section of Queens in New York City, where he was the youngest of three brothers — Danny and Russell, co-founder of Def Jam. They lived on a middle class block, but once they turned the corner, the neighborhood was home to gun-toting dope dealers, he says.

Simmons would wake up early to see his siblings just getting in from a long night out, and he would make them breakfast just to spend some time with them, he says.

"Everything to me was bigger than life," he says. "The whole house was full of energy, of people with incredible swagger."

Payne's questions focused on what young people can do to be successful in the world. Simmons stressed the importance of hard work, faith and patience.

"If you take shortcuts, you get cut short," he says. "When you become irreplaceable, you go from intern to president. The only person stopping you is you — if you got that confidence, you are going to make it."

However, he advised students to be practical. Success does not happen overnight, it's necessary to put in time and effort to make it to the top, Simmons says.

"While you are waiting for what you love to do, working at McDonalds isn't a bad thing," Simmons says. "When you get those things you cried about, the tears become tears of joy."

He said young people should seek out personal heroes to  emulate, Simmons says.

"When you are fascinated by something it becomes fastened to you," he says. "Find the perfect man that you look up to. If you are fascinated enough by these heroes you can become them."

Although he stressed the importance of good celebrity role models, Simmons did not place blame on public figures who make mistakes. Everyone has things of which they are not proud, he says.

He used the recent Tiger Woods sex scandal as an example.

"We all got something in our cage," Simmons says. "God just let Tiger's tiger out of his cage. Just be happy that God didn't let your tiger out of its cage — I'm balanced enough to know I'm not perfect."

Payne also asked about Run's opinion on the current state of African Americans, citing statistics that African American households are more likely to be single parent homes, and that 50 to 60 percent of African American children grow up in poverty.

Simmons tried to explain why an African American man might turn from his family.

"The black man feels put down," he says. "He's beat down, his wife takes a bigger job, he's out because he's hurt, he doesn't feel respected or loved," he says.

However, there are plenty of father figures in the African American community, and some of the best are in the church, Simmons says.

"We are on our way up," he says. "Through faith and hard work and using our talent, we don't have to be a part of that statistic."

Junior Brice Brown, who follows Simmons on Twitter every day, said he thinks the hip hop icon is an inspirational role model.

"He's keeping it real," Brown says. "I agree with a lot of the things he said about temptation. You are going to make mistakes. Just do your best and forget the rest."

Thea Ogunusi, a graduate student in urban affairs, also liked Simmons' realistic perspective.

"It was raw and uncensored," Ogunusi says. "He has a strong sense of spirituality but he didn't force his opinion on anyone."

Overall, Simmons says he wanted to make it clear that "spiritually and swagger" do not have to clash with one another. He says it takes both elements of his persona—the Rev and the Run — to "get things going."

The legendary rapper finished up the evening with a few lines of rhyming summation.

"Preach on a Sunday, rap on a Monday," he says. "Just because I wear a collar doesn't mean I can't earn a dollar."

To hear Rev Run speak more about Twitter, advice and life, visit udreview.com for an exclusive video interview.