Russell Simmons enters ‘The No Spin Zone’
Hip-Hop mogul on President Obama’s ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ initiative
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," March 11, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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O'REILLY: "Personal Story" segment tonight. If you watch THE FACTOR you know that we have been trying to help children at risk across the country, especially minority kids without parental guidance. President Obama has announced a huge initiative called "My Brother's Keeper" and that is a very strong step forward.
But along with that the inner city culture of cynicism must be in play. As you may know, I've been very critical of harmful entertainment marketed to largely unsupervised children.
Here now a member of the entertainment industry, Russell Simmons the author of the brand new book "Success through Stillness: Mediation Made Simple". Mr. Simmons is also the co-founder of the music label Def Jam.
All right now on other programs you have largely apologized for some of the promiscuous stuff.
RUSSELL SIMMONS, CO-FOUNDER OF DEF JAM: Well not so much.
O'REILLY: You say it reflects the reality of the situation.
SIMMONS: Yes. I kind of think that artists throughout history, poets throughout history have been criticized for sharing what's on people's minds and I don't think it's any different now. I think we have (inaudible) hundreds of years certainly in this country.
O'REILLY: Explain this, you're a -- you're a pretty perceptive businessman. Explain this, Beyonce, I saw her sing the Star-Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl in Houston -- brilliant. All right? Worth about $350 million. She puts out a new album with a video that glorifies having sex in the back of a limousine. Teenage girls look up to Beyonce, particularly girls of color. She is an idol to them.
I'm saying why on earth would this woman do that? Why would she do it when she knows the devastation that unwanted pregnancies, which we will deal with in a moment not with you but in another segment, and fractured families, why Beyonce do that?
SIMMONS: I was talking -- I wanted to talk a little bit about the left side of the brain and the right side of the brain connecting and the shift in brain functionality for meditation and other things and getting into schools.
O'REILLY: You don't want to talk about Beyonce.
SIMMONS: No. But I will say that -- I think the artist's job throughout history has been to tell -- to say things that people are inspired by. There is a subject -- there is a research that says a man thinks about sex every 12 seconds. And so when an artist expresses something that's sexual in music it is a reflection of our reality. If we want that reality changed, then we have to do things that affect the core.
So what I want to do and this is another subject back again but I want to put meditation in schools.
O'REILLY: Ok and we'll get to that in a moment because I agree with you on that and I support the David Lynch Foundation which does just that.
SIMMONS: That's right. I'm on the board.
O'REILLY: Right and I give you a ton of money.
SIMMONS: Thank you.
O'REILLY: All right so I support that. But you're dodging the question.
SIMMONS: No, no --
(CROSSTALK)
O'REILLY: I believe in -- I believe in entertainment and an entertainer like Beyonce and a mogul like you have an obligation to protect children, not put out exploitive garbage that you know harms impressionable children. I think Beyonce, what she has done here is inexplicable. And I'm asking you, Russell Simmons to explain it to me.
SIMMONS: Ok. As a parent of two children both of whom go to the schools for the gifted, I go to their home every morning at 6:15 and meditate with them until 6:35. I take them to school. We listen to the most commercial radio station on the way to school where they beef out certain words. But they've heard most of that language. My daughters make choices based on the inspiration that we give them as parents.
O'REILLY: Ok you're a good father, right?
SIMMONS: No. I guess I'm a good father.
O'REILLY: Ok you know.
SIMMONS: The mother is amazing. I'm ok as a father.
O'REILLY: Ok so you're ok as a father and the mother is amazing. What about the kids who don't have an amazing mother and ok father? Why? What about them?
SIMMONS: Bill, if you think that the art that comes out of a community is because of the struggle.
O'REILLY: That's art?
SIMMONS: Yes, absolutely.
O'REILLY: Beyonce in the back of a limo having sex and referencing Monica Lewinski is art?
SIMMONS: Yes, it is actually.
O'REILLY: Yes?
SIMMONS: Yes she is a brilliant artist and she's not only by people of color as you know, she is really one of the top artists in the world.
O'REILLY: She is. And I can't understand why the woman did it.
All right. Let's get to the medication because I think it's important.
SIMMONS: I do, too.
O'REILLY: It calms people down. That's number one. It calms people down. Because you take a moment of silence every day in a disciplined way and then when you do that, positive thoughts can come to you and you can -- you can express things in a way that doesn't conflict. So you want to get it in the public schools right.
SIMMONS: Absolutely.
O'REILLY: All right it would be optional some kids and parents didn't want it, you wouldn't force them to do it.
SIMMONS: I don't think we'd forced them but I think quiet time or sitting with patience and not having any -- there is no religious or any kind of a gender that should separate you from any religious ideas. And so I think as much as you say it should be optional. I think we should sit down just like we have to do math and be quiet. So we're going to be quiet and we're going to let our thoughts settle. And from that silence, we'll have a more expansive mind set and better brain functionality. It might have to be quiet.
O'REILLY: All right and that would be unconstitutional. You couldn't do it.
SIMMONS: Well it's not prayer, it's not prayer. Just quiet.
O'REILLY: It doesn't matter you can't -- you can't require any kind of an outside thing if parents object. How old are your kids?
SIMMONS: 14 and 11.
O'REILLY: Do they meditate every day?
SIMMONS: Every single morning.
O'REILLY: Ok how long do they meditate?
SIMMONS: 20 minutes.
O'REILLY: 20 minutes?
SIMMONS: My youngest one started at eight.
O'REILLY: So again they are yelling and screaming in that time.
SIMMONS: Not that 20 minutes.
O'REILLY: Can you come to my house Russell? I want you -- you can come to my house any time. The book is "Success through Stillness" and I think you're on the right track. You and see Beyonce tell her to knock it off from me. Ok?
SIMMONS: Oh no, you say to her --
O'REILLY: I'm not afraid of her you tell me. She can come on here any time. But what she did was wrong.
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