To no one's surprise, Russ has a bone to pick with the music industry and streaming- and that's not a jab at him. Moreover, the SANTIAGO rapper has often been very outspoken about his thoughts on these institutions, and there's certainly a lot to comment on and complain about. His latest target, focused on via Twitter, is the advent of fake streams to boost a song or album's profile. Apparently, the 30-year-old is so sick of trying to beat them that he wants to join other artists in that crusade, at least jokingly. Not only that, but he thinks it would make a point and is just a tool to promote yourself at the end of the day, as heinous as it may sound.
"Real s**t I'm boutta start faking my streams like everyone else," Russ tweeted on Thursday (September 14). "It's marketing when you think about it. General person is a sheep.. if you see a song has let's say 100m streams and you haven't heard it, you think 'damn I'm tripping I needa go peep.' And then the fake streams get you real streams. Such a ridiculous game but f**k it, maybe I'll film the whole process and drop a doc after."
Russ Can't Beat Them, So He'll Join Them
Another recent industry question that the Atlanta MC brought up recently concerns first week sales. These have to do specifically with Burna Boy's latest album, I Told Them..., and how close-minded people are when considering these numbers. "Burna Boy is doin 21k (in America) and sellin out arenas in America as well. How come artists who sell more than that (in America) aren't doing arenas (in America) ?" Russ inquired on Instagram. "Take a wild guess [crying-laughing emoji]."
Meanwhile, he also recently alleged that Billboard disqualified album sales of his own. "Billboard & Luminate took away ANOTHER 4,000 of my REAL sales over the weekend," he wrote on Twitter. "Making that 10,000 sales total they took away from me. [They allow] major labels to fake their streams and sales and do monopolistic merch bundles. Only major labels are allowed to do merch bundles because the only approved vendor is a major label vendor. These numbers and charts are made up. The impact however is not. Shoutout to the fans." We'll see what else the artist targets when it comes to the music industry. Considering that, log back into HNHH for the latest news and updates on Russ.