Rev Run aka Joseph Simmons, is one of the founding members of the pioneering hip-hop group, Run-D.M.C. His hit MTV show, Run’s House, aired for six seasons. Starring alongside his wife Justine and their six children, Run became America’s favorite father and a model of family values, humor, and spirituality.
He is the author of Words of Wisdom and the co-author with his wife of Take Back Your Family. Run’s daily inspirational words of wisdom are followed by nearly 3,000,000 people on Twitter and have established him as a thought leader in the world of social media.
He is the brother of Daniel “Danny” Simmons Jr. and Russell Simmons, the co-founder of Def Jam Records.
Run’s latest book, co-authored with Tyrese Gibson, is called “Manology: Secrets of Your Man’s Mind Revealed.”
In this interview, he talks about his new book, how relationships have changed over the past decade, how technology has impacted commitment, and his best career advice. You can follow him on Twitter @RevRunWisdom or on Facebook.
Q: How did you both come together to write this book?
A: I came together with Tyrese some years ago. Tyrese got a email from me because I sent out mass emails to people in the industry. A lot of people were just on this list because it got so popular with my words of wisdom. Tyrese got the word out on how he got on the list, and he emailed me. I knew who he was, but I didn’t know him. “Hey Rev,” and he adds a discrepancy with my morning email. 6:30 a.m. is when I wake up and write my emails, and at 3:30 he’s up doing whatever he does, making music or whatever, and he writes this email. He tells me to call him because he had disagreed and then we became close friends right there.
We spoke for four hours and I was telling him my opinion about his concern about cheating, and my biblical principles of cheating just isn’t right. We said “Man this is a relationship that we are talking about right now, man, this was a book. We should make a book called ‘I Beg to Differ.’” We just became friends and we forgot about the book. Then, years later we went back and said, “You know we should still write that book.”
We got an agent and told him about ‘I Beg to Differ’, and he goes, “We don’t know if we love that name.’” We let it go and we started thinking about names, and we just started writing these tweets called “Manology.” He’d write a tweet and I’d write a tweet. Here’s what we’re thinking about men and women. Here’s some thoughts about women. Here’s Manology. Pound sign Manology (#Manology). It got so popular on Twitter in our circle that when we went to shop the book Manology, there was a little bidding war. Next thing you know, we had a deal, and here you have Manology.
Q: How do you think relationships have changed over the past decade? How has technology, mainly social media, affected courtship and commitment?
A: That’s a great question. This show Catfish on MTV is pretty crazy with people getting into relationships online. Meeting people online is pretty scary after looking at Catfish. I think life has changed a lot as far as people [having more] microwave relationships where you’re texting instead of calling. It’s pretty different nowadays in order to keep your relationship going. You can email and you can face-time. There’s just so many ways you can get in touch with your loved ones and keep it going that I think it’s made a little bit easier to be able to communicate with the opposite sex.
Read more: Dan Schawbel,Forbes
