Russell Simmons Knows A Sales Opportunity When He Sees One

Russell Simmons weighs in at the Huffington Post. Then proceeds to shill, bizarrely, for Eckhart Tolle's The New Earth. But I do wonder—can anybody quantify the effects of the Jay-Z, Nas, Simmons, Mary, Diddy, etc. full-court press these past few months? Is this something a pollster can actually put a number on? Seems like it *should* be possible. Youth vote wasn't up much, but it was pronouncedly more for Obama. So that's something...

Anyway, Russell: "The vision of the hip-hop generation and its young people was in full and glorious effect last night. While many older Americans -- who marched and struggled so hard so Senator Obama could run for president of the United States -- never dared to believe in his candidacy's real potential, young people, particularly the hip-hop community, had faith and their imagination became our reality." [Via Daily Swarm]