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It's Like That: A Spiritual Memoir

© Michelle Troutman

by Joseph "Reverend Run" Simmons with Curtis L. Taylor
St. Martin's Press
August 2000
ISBN #: 0-312-20467-1
$18.95, hardcover
158 pages, illustrations

Before his pioneering rap group Run-D.M.C. would become a subject of VH1's Where Are They Now? Joseph Simmons reinvented himself as "Reverend Run." After the group's mid-80s success with their album Raising Hell, their self-financed and produced Tougher Than Leather (1988) album and movie flopped. Several years later, Run still performs with "the Rolling Stones of hip-hop" (without the collar).

At age 12, Run started rapping around his Hollis, Queens, New York neighborhood. Up and coming rapper Kurtis Blow was a friend of his older brother Russell's, so it wasn't long before Run became acquainted with Blow. Blow offered him the opportunity to perform on his album Christmas Rapping, where Run was billed as Son of Kurtis Blow. Shortly thereafter, together with grade school friends Dee (Darryl McDaniels) and Jam Master Jay (Jason Mizell), he formed Run-D.M.C. Their third album Raising Hell (1986) became their most successful through their rap-rock crossover hit cover of the Aerosmith song Walk This Way. In 1986, at age 20, Run had achieved his dream of performing at Madison Square Garden. Run-D.M.C.'s hit My Adidas influenced Adidas to offer the group a $2 million endorsement deal. They were the first rappers on MTV and on the covers of Rolling Stone and Spin magazines. Run became considered one of hip-hop's pioneers, the "King of Rap."

After reaching the top, the only direction left for the group was down. Friend and rival L.L. Cool J was suddenly more popular than they were. Run had developed the habit of smoking pot and chasing groupies. He craved expensive cars and clothing, yet he felt spiritually empty. Fame was a powerful drug that made him depressed and suicidal. In 1991, Simmons was found not guilty for allegedly raping a female fan, and he had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees. Sales of Run-D.M.C.'s comeback album Back from Hell were sluggish. At the time he was experiencing the fire and brimstone of "spiritual burnout."

His meeting with Bishop E. Bernard Jordan at the Zoe Ministries in New York City helped change his mind-set. He further considered turning to spirituality when he saw televangelist Robert Tilton on late night TV. Such admissions made him a target for ridicule. People in the hip-hop world who knew about Simmons' church involvement made fun of him, however, for the most part his conversion was relatively unknown. Soon after he joined the ministry, he made the proverbial comeback. He worked hard to become a deacon, and in 1994

book's cover

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