Hip-hop to a higher power
Yoga and hip-hop aren’t usually uttered in the same sentence; the two worlds seem diametrically opposed, yoga with its taint of upper-middle-class lifestyle and hip-hop with its roots in urban street culture. If there was one person who could bring them together it would be Russell Simmons, and the music-film-television-apparel mogul wants to do just that, with a new video due out next month.
“Russell Simmons Presents Yoga Live” merges yoga and hip-hop into a series of four videos that promotes weight loss, flexibility, relaxation and toning through yoga, and adds original hip-hop music. Simmons is co-founder of Def Jam Records, produced the HBO series “Def Comedy Jam” and “Def Poetry” and founded the successful clothing lines Phat Farm and Baby Phat. He is widely credited with taking rap and hip-hop to underexposed markets and into the mainstream, and with “Yoga Live” he hopes to do the same.
“If yoga could become an important part of American culture, it could promote more well-being in America and the world,” says Simmons. “This could be a better, brighter cultural landscape.”
Yoga is already part of some cultural landscapes. On the Westside, yoga studios are as familiar as Saabs and Starbucks, with $15 the going rate for classes. But in other areas, such as South Los Angeles or East L.A., classes are rare, sometimes held at community centers and YMCAs.
Simmons says he passed up early offers to get involved in a yoga video, but agreed this time because the producer of these tapes wanted to emphasize the spiritual, as well as physical, aspects of yoga. “To practice yoga promotes peace and love and giving,” he says, “which is the reason for us being here. The more I could promote yoga, the more I could give the world what was really special.”
The telephone interview begins in his New York office and continues at the Jivamukti Yoga Center where he practices. Simmons credits his decade-old practice (that started as a way to meet girls) with helping him lose 30 pounds, become a vegan, cure his chronic insomnia and develop a deeper sense of spirituality. He says proceeds from sales of the first series of videos, which retail for $40, will benefit his Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation.
Judging by the 30-second clip made available (the series was still being edited last week), the video features an attractive, multiethnic cast; an airy, colorful set; and a hip-hop soundtrack tinged with Eastern music. Simmons chose the instructors and made sure all aspects of yoga were embraced. He doesn’t actually appear in the videos, but he will be in the infomercials, which debut in April.
The series is divided into four parts: “Beginner Basics,” “Power Flow for Accelerated Weight Loss,” “Total Body Toning and Flexibility” and “Core Strength for Abs.” Sara Ivanhoe, who teaches at Maha Yoga in Brentwood and has hosted other videos, leads two of the four videos (other instructors are Elena Brower and Jeffrey Cohen). She says instructors had a message to impart beyond getting fit: “Basics,” she says, “is about having the courage to embark on a new journey.”
Simmons says yoga has changed his business life as well as his health. “I mean, the idea of not using harmful practices in my business, that’s critical,” he says. “It’s made me more conscious of what’s harmful, and what’s not, in all aspects of my life.”
Yet his epiphany doesn’t quite harmonize with the gritty, sometimes violent and misogynistic personas and lyrics embedded in the rap world. Says Simmons, “When I think of 50 Cent I think of the high notes. I think of the goodness in all of them. When he sees me he thinks of yoga. Puffy’s been here,” he says, talking about rapper Sean “P. Diddy” Combs coming to yoga class, “and a bunch of rappers. It’s not full of rappers yet, but we’re hopeful.”
And could their venturing into the studio for a few sun salutations change their music? “It affects what everybody raps about,” says Simmons. “I bring Nation of Islam guys here, and a bunch of people from the foundation. All their rap changes for the better.”
Simmons hopes lending his name to the venture will help woo a larger audience to yoga. “The fact that I’m presenting it makes it different,” says Simmons. “We’re playing cooler music and have cool instructors, and it retains all the integrity of this 5,000-year-old practice.”
Although she hasn’t seen the video, yoga teacher Debrah Constance believes Simmons’ name and reputation could be a draw. Constance is the founder of A Place Called Home, a South Los Angeles nonprofit youth center, where yoga class students include mothers as well as gang members. “If yoga could reach the inner city, they would love it,” she says. “Yoga is so new in the area.”
As executive editor of Yoga Journal, Mary Bolster sees every new variation of yoga and its accompanying hype. But of Simmons’ effort she says, “I applaud his decision to do this. From what I’ve read about him he cares about this marginalized group and knows how to reach them. Yoga has so much to offer, so you might as well package it as well as you can so people at least pay attention and look at the dimensions of it.”
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“Russell Simmons Presents Yoga Live” can be pre-ordered at www.getyogalive.com.