of the--a white ba--
yes, I'm a director. Obviously, okay?
I'm a multi-hyphenate but not as multi-hyphenate
as my guest today.
Completely self-made, he is, with over a billion streams--
billion with a B, with a B!
He made the soundtrack to my entire life.
Give it up for Russ!
What up, what up? Is there a dog on your lap?
Hey! Oh, my God, I'm obsessed.
I love--who is this?
- My little girl Chloé.
- I'm getting a two-for-one right now.
Hi, Chloé.
- Trying to be good. She can't help it.
- Russ, I am so excited to talk to you.
I think you are one of the dopest humans
on the planet.
I wanna dive into your brain and just swim.
I want to swim in your brain for a second.
Can I do that? - Let's do it.
- Okay, so you, in my opinion, are the opposite
of an overnight success.
I feel like you have such a unique story
and rise to fame.
How did you get the fan base you have right now?
- Really just consistency.
It was a mixture of quantity and quality.
'Cause, you know, my whole come up was built
on just flooding, you know?
So starting December 2011
to, like, September 2014,
I put out 11 mixtapes, you know,
that were all done by me, and that didn't work.
And then I did a song a week
for, like, 2 1/2 years, you know?
And that's when I started to build the fanbase.
- I'm loving this confidence.
I need to--I feel like rubbing myself.
Like, I want this confidence on me.
Were you always confident?
Like, you had no doubts ever just from the get-go?
- No, no, no, no, at the beginning, I did.
When I was, you know, eight or nine,
around that age, and I was just writing raps
in a notebook--like, I don't know.
I feel like any eight or nine-year-old
is confident in whatever they're doing.
You don't even have the ability to care
about whatever people are thinking,
but it was probably senior year
when I was about to graduate, and I was like--
at first, I asked my brother,
and he was like, "Yeah, why not?"
'Cause I wasn't confident in my voice
'cause I'd never--I had never been on a microphone,
I wasn't sure about it like that,
but once Bugus put the battery in my back,
it was a rap.
I was like, "Cool, say let's--
if you like it, if you think it's dope,
pshh, out of here, so then I just went crazy.
- Supporting your friends and supporting people
actually goes a long way.
Like, if it wasn't for that moment,
like you said--if he was like, "Nah, man.
Like, maybe it'll be wack."
Like, you might not be Russ, you know?
- Yeah, yeah. - Like, that's crazy.
You've always been such a positive rapper.
Like, at least that's my personal opinion as well.
You know, "Do It Myself" was literally the soundtrack
for my career.
Has it been hard throughout these years
evolving your career, getting bigger,
getting more famous, getting more money--
has it been hard to stay positive though?
- Super hard.
And it didn't have anything to do with, like,
the money or whatever.
It more so had to do with the fact that
being positive and being just delusionally confident
when I was a "nobody"
was really, really easy because there was no one there
to dispute my confidence and belief
'cause there was no fans. - Mm-hmm.
I've followed you for a long time.
You're very wise.
You're very positive. You're very confident.
Are you a Virgo? Libra?
- Libra. - Libra.
I just feel like you were born on a day
where, like, heroes are born. When's your birthday again?
- [chuckles] September 26.
- That's crazy! Me too!
That's crazy! - That's your birthday?
- That is my birthday.
Why do you think I did this whole setup?
- Have we talked about this before?
- I think I tweeted you 'cause we are birthday twins
so I'm taking all the credit for you being amazing.
- Wow, incredible.
- I'm like, "That's why we're amazing."
Okay, Russ, I have to ask you about this
because I'm a huge Rihanna fan.
Rihanna posted the thirstiest of thirst traps
to "Best on Earth."
I know you know what I'm talking about
'cause I see the smile on your face.
What--were you shook?
Well, like, what did that feel like?
- I'll always remember where I was
when I saw that post.
[hip-hop music]
♪ Mm, mm, yeah, yeah, yeah
- ♪ I got drip on the floor, and it's gettin' nasty ♪
♪ He ain't keepin' his hands up off my [reversed speech] ♪
- It was 9:30 at night. You know what I'm saying?
It was around that time.
I was standing in my, like, sitting room,
and I saw that, and I remember just screaming
like I just won the NBA championship.
[Chloé grunts softly] Just screaming and, like,
calling my friends.
And, like, "Yo, do you see this?"
[screams] Like, just going insane.
So if you were to sit here right now as an artist
and be like, "Yeah, I'm gonna post a song,
"and within 24 hours, Rihanna's gonna post it
"and say it's her favorite song,
and she's gonna be walking in slow motion to it."
- The slow motion was the icing on top.
And, Russ, you've dropped so many hits over the years.
You just dropped one.
It is "UGLY" featuring Lil Baby,
which I love so much. It is such a vibe.
How did this come to be?
- That was just, you know, another just night
down here where I'm currently at
in the studio in the house, and Boi-1da
sent a pack of beats,
and that was just one of the beats,
and I did the hook and I did my verse,
and I was like, "This is crazy."
Then Bugus, who's just, like, the greatest A&R ever,
he was like, "Yo, you should get Lil Baby
on this. He would sound crazy."
I was like, "Hell yeah. Let's do it."
- Do you still feel like an underdog
or do you feel like you've surpassed underdog status?
- No, I still feel like an underdog.
You can say,
"Oh, well, you've done this, and you've done that."
You could list accomplishments that I have and stuff
and be like, "How is he underrated?"
Because, in my opinion, I know what I'm shooting for
and I know where I'm trying to get to,
and I know I'm not there yet.
- But do you feel like you still have underdog status
with the public eye?
'Cause that's a different thing.
- The more they hate, the bigger the underdog I am.
That's what they don't realize because after a while,
people get tired of doing what everyone else is doing
and they start to question-- why are we doing this?
And it's the same thing with hate.
It's like--after a while, it's like,
"Why don't we like him again?"
And then they start becoming fans,
and that's what's happening, so I feel like
the tables are turning. I can't wait.
I can't wait.
It's a perfect storm right now.
- The last thing in that sentence,
you said that you know where you want to get.
Where do you want to get? What is success?
When do you be like, "All right, I did it.
I did what I had to do." When is that moment?
- There isn't that moment.
I'll get a diamond song and be like,
"Well, I want another one."
I'll sell out Madison Square Garden.
I'm like, "Well, I want to sell it out three times," or--
"Oh, but you made $50 million on "Forbes" this year."
Yeah, but I want to make 100 million.
So, like, there's never a finish line.
You feel me?
I think success is really a mindset,
and I've been successful since I was born mentally
because I felt like I was always living my truth
and going after what I wanted to go after
and doing what made me happy,
so I've been successful my whole life.
The "appetite comes with the meal" type of thing.
The more you get... [chuckles]
the more you want. - Y'all hear that?
That's my birthday twin right there.
That's my birthday twin dropping facts.
That's what we do.
That's what we do
as birthday twins, okay? Right there.