While some may think it's odd that a hip-hop mogul credits his success to spiritual connection achieved through yoga and meditation, Russell says it makes perfect sense.

"I think [hip-hop artists] are expressing things that sometimes we don't like to listen to. They're expressions are mirrors, sometimes, of what we do but then overlook. They bring it out," he says. "I think rappers are very spiritual people. I think the hip-hop community is a very spiritual community."

Russell says the international hip-hop community holds values that show they're "conscious of things that adults overlook. They're less sexist than their parents, they're less racist, they're less homophobic. They're less violent, believe it or not."

"The poets always get the fingers pointed at [them], because they express things that make people uncomfortable about their own nature or their own experience."