Russ has always been vocal about his come-up story and the music industry as a business at large. Russ' story is one we've become familiar with, and has all the trappings of the ol' 'hard work pays off' adage. After finding success independently, the Atlanta rapper later signed with Columbia Records.
Even so, he's clearly been smart about the business side of things and he's revealed how he tailored his deal with Columbia to meet his own personal requirements, which means it's more so a partnership than anything else. As he once explained concerning his Columbia deal, "I made sure that I built up leverage. I was selling out shows, I was doing all of this shit. With a profit split [deal], let's do the math: I got 300 songs out and I did an album deal [with Columbia]. None of those 300 songs get touched, [it's] only the shit on the album. And off of that album, you're going to give me a bunch of money. After that money gets recouped, we then split everything 50/50. So, out of the 20 songs, it's really like, you're getting 10. So out of my 300 songs, you're getting 10. So how much of me did I actually sign to you?"
This sage approach when it comes to the business of music has been offered up to fans in the past, and this afternoon he decided to sprinkle a little more advice for upcoming artists on his Instagram page, while revealing some of his earnings in years prior.
"For inspirational purposes," he starts, "My come up. OWNERSHIP. Ups and downs is all part of the journey. STICK WITH IT. The big dip in fall of 2016 is when I partnered and moved my main earners over to Columbia cuz I wanted them on my debut album. I stopped it at 2017 cuz I don’t need y’all fully in my pockets like that but also, every dollar on this I kept (except taxes) cuz as some have liked to laugh at, I produced mixed mastered engineered and wrote all of this. I been laughing the whole time!!!"
Check out the post below, and begin to imagine what Russ' bank account looks like present-day.