Rev. Run Talks Mobile Inspiration & Influencing Jay Z, Kanye to Get Married!

Rev. Run has been inspiring many of us for decades. Basically, he’s been dropping gems inspiring folks to stay clear of hot mess for a while now. When AT&T invited me to interview him last week, I jumped at the chance.

It’s fair to say he’s mastered most media platforms.“I went from oh snap, that’s Run from Run-D.M.C. to oh snap, that’s the dude on Run’s House, to oh snap, I follow you on Twitter,” said Hip Hop legend Rev. Run.

His social media influence started as a daily email with words of wisdom, evolved into tweets, and now Instagram postings. “They weren’t even mentioning my music. They weren’t even mentioning my television shows. They were mentioning social media,” he said.

I sat down with Rev. Run before a panel discussion at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention in Washington D.C. Rev. Run is a spokesperson for AT&T’s #InspiredMobility campaign. “I’m basically doing what I’m doing and putting [the] #InspiredMobility hashtag after,” he said.

Rev. Run says these days he’s focused on talking about relationships. On a daily basis he’s sharing anecdotes about his own marriage with his social media followers. “The Bible says where you treasure is where your heart is at. It's where I’m thinking. It’s where I’m at. I’m grown. I’m thinking about my wife. I’m thinking about love,” He said.

Rev. Run thinks social media users share or retweet things they feel are representative of their own thoughts and feelings; posts that touch them deeply. He thinks it’s part of what made him more retweeted than Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga. “It’s almost like an amen,” said Rev. Run. This seems to be inline with research from AT&T which says 71% of Americans use their mobile devices as digital portals for inspiration.

Rev. Run says sharing his own life has inspired some of rap’s biggest names. “I’m trying to inspire. Some of this has inspired, I believe Jay Z to get married, Kanye. I’m the after rap. What do you do after rap? What do you do when you grow up? What’s really swag?” he said.

He says he’s inspiring people to see the swag which comes from having your life in order. “When you can see the top rappers both married, it says a lot,” he said. “The Bible says when you’re younger you do younger things and when you get older you put those away,” said Rev. Run.

This is something Black Enterprise’s Alfred Edmond, Jr. echoed too. He moderated the #InspiredMobility session with Rev Run. Edmond runs a website called GrownZone.com with his wife.

The pair routinely share relationship inspiration on social media as well. Edmond said the model of the Grown Zone is that it’s not just about adult choices, it’s about grown decisions. “Everything you have the adult right to do is not the grown, healthy thing to do,” said Alfred Edmond, Jr. “What people do in the name of being so-called grown and sexy is not grown at all,” he said.

AT&T’s research also had some interesting nuggets about social media and church. 70% of people surveyed said they use mobile technology to access faith-based content the most. Rev. Run says social media has definitely become a powerful tool for other faith-based inspirers too. “T.D. Jakes, a bunch of people have many followers, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, a bunch of churches have Twitter accounts, Instagram. It’s helpful,” he said.

Furthermore, AT&T’s reach survey says more than 53% of Blacks use mobile to connect to faith with Black women being the most active users. As a Black woman myself, I’m not surprised by that stat whatsoever. I love a sharing the word on social media and so do many of my friends.

Rev. Run says he’s focused on continued growth in this space. “I’m not cool anymore. I’m cool’s inspiration,” he said. However, I saw him drop a couple bars during the #InspiredMobility session, proving that he’s still pretty cool, and still has a lot of swag. I caught a snippet. You can check it out here:

“I’m going to stay focused on what I believe I should inspired people to be and myself as well,” said Rev Run. Of course I recorded my inspiring chat with Rev. Run on my mobile device. You can watch the full interview on my blog’s YouTube channel. It’d be a hot mess if you didn’t take a look! ;)