(News and Notes)...If 50 Cent, Nas and Kanye West are the modern face of big-money hip-hop, Russell Simmons is the man who made hip-hop a big-money game. Simmons founded the record label Def Jam with producer Rick Rubin in 1984, and since then his reach has extended beyond music to include clothing companies, arts nonprofit organizations, and the diamond industry. Simmons brings all his skills to bear in his new self-help book, Do You! Laws To Access The Power In You To Achieve Happiness And Success. In it, he explains how readers can use yoga and Buddhism to find what he calls the "sweet spot": one's life's work and mission. Despite Simmons' new spiritual frame of mind, though, his tour to promote the new book has been bumpy, with conversation inevitably turning from his spiritual philosophy to the societal effect of the music he produces. As Simmons explains in our interview, the focus on those issues has been frustrating: "I had a book tour about peace and love, and everyone wants to talk about bitches and hos." One radio DJ hung up on Simmons after the topic of the role of misogyny came up, while a reporter at WGN-TV in Chicago wrote in a post-interview blog entry that "all of the book's quotes from Ghandi about peace and love are fine, but it's all hard to take seriously when the author is cussing on two phones at the same time."

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