The Men of Manology

Dear Rev Run and Tyrese:

Thank you both for agreeing to be interviewed on CNN Profiles.

Tyrese, as I mentioned, when the producers at CNN's guest bookings department excitedly told me we could get you for CNN Profiles, I said "Who's Tyrese?"

I asked a lot of friends and colleagues if they'd heard of you. I don't know if the answers represent the broader reality, but they pretty much broke down along racial lines. Most of of my white friends didn't know your work. My African American friends did. Especially the women.

One said to me: "Tyrese is going to be in this building?! When?." She added: "I don't like to use this phrase, but Tyrese is hot."

The more I read about you the more curious I got. How did you make it out of Watts to build such a multifaceted career of an R&B singer and movie actor.

Before our interview began, you were offered something to drink, and your eyes lit up at the possibility of apple juice. The way you explained why you feel so grateful for apple juice is a window into your achievement.

How did you, Tyrese Gibson, rise up from a home where apple juice was a luxury, where your mother tried so hard but succumbed to her addiction? You explained: "I was dreaming beyond the reality I was living in."

And RevRun:

When you were Run of Run DMC, a founding father of Hip Hop, I was just getting out of college. Jazz was my passion. So I didn't buy your records back then.

I didn't realize how you came up with the name RunDMC, which you explain in our interview. Or the amazing story you relate of how you came to make Adidas sneakers - with no laces - a fashion statement - and the dark roots of the missing laces that even you didn't know when you started wearing them.

I was familiar with the book the two of you have just written together because the title recently caught my eye in the bookstore.

"Manology: Secrets of Your Man's Mind Revealed."

On CNN Profiles, we try to reveal the secrets of the minds of our guests - to tap into their wisdom.

So, RevRun, I believe our listeners will appreciate your description of how, at the peak of your hip hop career, sitting in the bathtub of a luxury hotel's Presidential Suite, the highest moment of your life became the lowest. And how you used that realization to turn your life around.

I hope that will be the lasting impact of this CNN Profile. The wisdom that, for all of us, our highest moment could lead to our lowest. And our lowest could lead to our highest.