Before Russ dropped 11 mix tapes in the span of just three years, and pulled in tens of
millions of views for music videos like Losin Control, Too Many, Do It Myself, and What
They Want
Before lighting it up on sound cloud, with over half a million followers, and hitting
number four on the US rap charts with his debut studio album, There's Really A Wolf
Before he was living the life of a rap star, selling out
shows accross the US and Europe, inking a deal with Columbia, and, getting some, well,
some other perks...
Russ grew up travelling all over the country, before finally settling down in Atlanta.
From there, he'd team up with his music friends and gradually build up a powerful online following
by dropping music relentlessly, on sound cloud, youtube, and his own website.
After years of hustling, major record labels would be knocking down his door, and he would
soon be opening for the likes of Vince Stapes, Waka Flocka Flame, and Wiz Khalifa.
What's going on, guys?
Michael McCrudden here, hitting you in the face with another Before They Were Famous
video, documenting the life and career of Russ prior to fame.
I've covered other rappers who are big on soundcloud, like XXXtentacion, and Chance
the Rapper.
But you guys let me know who you want to see next!
You can do that in the comments, or hit me up on twitter or Instagram, at McCruddenM.
Russ was born Russell Vitale on September 26th, 1992 in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Russ was born with a condition called hetero chromia, meaning his eyes have different colours.
In Russ's case, both his eyes are brown, but the left one is a much darker.
Russ's mom was a college graduate, but she didn't do much with her degree.
Instead, his father supported the family, but didn't have the same educational background.
Aside from New Jersey, Russ also lived in New York, North Carolina and Kentucky, before
finding a more permanent home in Atlanta, Georgia, when he was 12 years old.
Even prior to that, Russ had shown an interest in hip hop, penning raps in his notebook from
the age of seven.
By fourteen, he was beginning to produce beats, and he recorded his first song at 18 years
old.
Music was in the genes, with Russ's grandfather actually teaching him how to play the guitar.
But he grew up listening to his parents' music, which was not exactly hip hop.
They had him listening to artists like Earth Wind and Fire, Billy Joel, The Mommas and
The Poppas, Bruce Springsteen and Luther Vandros.
In fact, he's stated his earliest memory of music was dancing to country music in North
Carolina, when he was 3 years old.
Russ's first introduction to hip hop came in the form of G Unit's artists, Eminem, Dr.
Dre, and 50 cent.
Today, he claims his biggest artistic influences include Drake, Kanye, J Cole, DMX, and Tupac.
But that's not all.
Determined to make it as a rapper and producer, Russ still a young teen when he formed a musical
collective with a bunch of his friends, including Bugus, Dartlin, Paulo, DJ Adam Golden, Macivan
Musa, and John Anthony.
The group would be known as DIEMON, which stands for Do It Everyday Music or Nothing,
and Russ would be the in house producer.
While Russ's beats did not have the typical trap style sound you'd expect from an Atlanta
based artist, from the beginning he decided to bypass the local scene and built his audience
online.
To put out his music, his crew would create a website, diemon dot com, which is still
in operation today.
A youtube channel would follow, registered on September 19th, 2011.
Their first video would be a music video for El Jefe, a song by Bugus, and produced by
Russ.
It wouldn't be long before Russ's vocals would also be featured on the channel.
The music video for Corleone would drop on May 30th, 2012.
By the time that video was put out, Russ had already dropped his first two mixtapes, Velvet
(Dec, 2011) and Apollo 13 (Jan, 2012).
And the music just kept coming.
In fact, by the time Russ got on to soundcloud in October of 2014, he had already released
11 mixtapes.
Capitalizing on his ability to rapidly create music, Russ began to pump out a song every
week.
Within a year, he had amassed well over 5,000 followers on sound cloud.
A year after that, he had amassed over 200,000.
At the time of this recording, he has well over 500 thousand.
Needless to say, the labels started calling around October of 2015.
While Russ says he really could have signed with anyone, he ultimately decided to team
up with Columbia.
With the backing of a major label, he got to work on his first studio Album, There's
Really a Wolf.
The album would be released on May 5, 2017, and rock the billboard charts, hitting number
7 on the Hot 200 and number 4 on the US Rap charts.
It would also feature four singles, two of which would be certified platinum.
Today, Russ continues to control his own sound, producing his own beats, and penning his own
lyrics.
As for the rest of the story, well, we'll have to wait and see, this is before they
were famous.
My name's Michael McCrudden, thanks for watching this video.
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