29 Mar 2021

Everything to Know About a Well-known American Russ Rapper

Russ Rapper

Russell James Vitale is better known by his stage name – Russ born on 26th September 1992 is an American Rapper, musician, record producer, songwriter, singer, and author from Atlanta, Georgia.

He is popular for his singles tracks “Best on Earth”, Losin Control”, and “What They Want” which peaked at numbers 46, 63, and 83 respectively on the United States Billboard Hot 100.

Definitely NOT an overnight success

As an artist, he doesn’t have that large fan audience as most of the artists have. However, at the same time, his approach and his work to fame set him apart from other rappers in the industry. His rise to become a celebrity reflects this variance perfectly.

Though he had a significant number of loyal fanbases since his SoundCloud days, Russell has made his way across all the music platforms as the launch of his first-ever major project – “There’s a Wolf”.

Many believe that Russ has got an overnight success because of his hit album, but Russ wanted everyone to realize and concede is that his achievement was nowhere near close to something that has happened overnight.

He once describes himself jokingly as a “10-year, 11-albums and 87-songs overnight success”.

Early Life of Russ

Russ was born in Secaucus, New Jersey on 26th September 1992. He was born in an American-Sicilian family. He has three other siblings in this family.

He used to live in Kentucky and North Carolina in his early childhood because his father had to relocate constantly due to his career.

Russ’s father taught him to play guitar and over the years, he has learned gradually how to play many other musical instruments. When Russ was only 7 years old, he started writing raps in his books, and also, he started making great beats when he was just 14 years old. In those days, he used to produce raps and music with his friend Bugus. Russ has recorded his first-ever song when he was 18.

About his popular albums

- After released many albums, singles, and mixtapes for free on the various online platforms, he released his 12th Studio album which is “There’s a Wolf, on 5th May 2017 through Columbia Records. This album is certified by Platinum on 18th April 2018.

- Later, his 13th album, “Zoo” was published on 7th September 2018 and selected as the 4th number on the USA Billboard 200.

- His 14th studio album, “Shake the Snow Globe” was launched on 31st January 2020 and again it picked at 4th number on the USA Billboard 200.

Russ's tracks are, for the most part, written and produced by him. The artist sings, raps, and talks about motivation, trust, and relationships in the tracks, as in “What They Want”, “Psycho, Pt 2” and “Losin Control”, one of the artist's great successes.

Apart from his singles track, Russ is also a part of Diemon which is a popular music collective from Atlanta.

During an interview with Brian Miller at Recap, the rapper spoke a little about his career, album, and the story of how he recorded with the R&B king.

Russ proposed to Chris Brown to record some songs and, as always, said Yes! He was in LA to record with other artists when Chris called and asked everyone to come to his studio, concluding that new music is coming!

From December 2011 to August 2014, Russ has released 87 singles and 11 albums sequentially at no cost. Despite this, his music was not as popular as he dreamed. So, then he started to release a new song every week on SoundCloud for almost 3 years. Among these songs, two were hit – What They Want” & “Losin Control”.

Controversies

Apart from his great career, there are also some controversies in the life of Russ. On 11th September 2017, after his live show, Russ tweeted a picture showing him in a shirt with writing on it which said: "How much xans and lean do you have to do before you realize you're a fucking loser".

This Tweet instigated a lot of controversies and led to several responses from other popular music artists as well. Fredo Santana who is a well-known Chicago rapper responded to this Tweet and stating: “Until I can stop thinking bout, my dead homies the trauma I been thru [sic] in my life that's when I'll stop".

After this controversy, the “Fuck Russ” phrase was trending and also many memes were released.

On 6th June 2018, after J.Cole and Lil Pump settle their issues in an interview, Lil Pump had Tweeted “ME & J COLE COOL NOW SO NOW ITS FUCK RUSS". In July 2018, a Houston-based rapper had also released a song which is called "Fuck Russ".

His Influences and Musical Style

The early inspirations of Russ were Eminem, 50 Cent, and G-Unit. Russ has produced many beats for around 6 years before he tried to record his raps.

Russ is popular for his songs being written, engineered, mastered, mixed, produced, and also performed by himself. In his career, the only producer with whom he has collaborated is Scott Storch.

Most of the songs by Russ have R&B elements and Hip Hop and also, he is very talented in mixing singing and rapping on the hook.

His musical style has been described by Uproxx as a “raspy, hardboy rap flow, and lilting, almost drunken singing voice”.

Personal Life

If we talk about personal life, Russ has two different eye colors and this condition was called Heterochromia. The color of his right eye is light-brown and his left eye is dark-brown.

Russ’s popular Studio Albums and Discography

-Shake the Snow Globe (2020)
-Zoo (2018)
- There’s Really a Wolf (2017)