WHAT IT IS: For 10 years, Russ has been doing it all himself. A self-proclaimed “DIY pioneer,” he writes, performs, produces, mixes and masters all of his own music. His strong vision and self-belief has resulted in nearly 300m plays of his vast catalog, which all gets sung word-for-word by his dedicated fanbase at sold-out shows across the globe. First single “What They Want” has led the way, providing fans with a potent dose of his dynamic style. The song has been steadily climbing the rhythm radio charts, pulling in 4m+ audio/video streams a week, accumulating over 35m+ Spotifystreams and reaching peak positions at iTunes, Shazam and Spotify in the last week.
SINGLE: “What They Want”
TV: BET Hip Hop Awards cypher, MTV Wonderland
LIVE: On headline tour now, selling out 1,500-2,000 capacity venues; tours of the Middle East and Europe to follow
INTERNET: 250m+ audio/video streams of Russ tracks; consumption +5,000% YTD; single one of the top songs on musical.ly charts; Kate Hudson posted on Snapchat dancing to song; Wesley Matthews from Dallas Mavericks posted his musical.ly of the song to Mavs platforms; #1 user on musical.ly Baby Ariel posted video of “Pull The Trigger”; sales up nine weeks in a row
RADIO: Single Top 15 at Rhythm; impacting Urban now
PRESS: Included in BET’s “Ten Artists You Need To Show Love” list; recent HotNewHipHop and XXL coverage
BOOKING: Cara Lewis/CL Group
MANAGEMENT: Milan Ackerman