It's apparent that some of our favorite entertainers have opted to keep their mouths shut about this current political movement. Reporter Don Lemon recently stirred the pot when he called out celebrities, by name, who he believed should have used their platforms to condemn police brutality and injustice. Even so, there are plenty of others who remain silent, but it hasn't gone unnoticed—especially by Russ. The rapper-singer has taken to social media not only to raise awareness about Black Lives Matter but to put his money where his mouth is.
"Some artists are scared to lose their fanbase meanwhile black people are scared to lose their LIFE everyday," Russ wrote. Then, he shared a 2017 photo of himself wearing a t-shirt that reads: "If you want to change the system, speak up White silence is the problem." Russ decided to sell the shirt and give all proceeds to Black Lives Matter.
At the time of this publication, Russ has raised over $250K for the cause, and now he has his eyes set on $1 million. We'll have to wait and see if he'll be able to reach his goal, but for being just a few hours, this has been quite the accomplishment. Check out a few of his tweets below.
Russ Announces "Shake The Snow Globe" Deluxe Edition
Russ reveals he's got a deluxe edition of "Shake the Snow Globe."
UPDATE: This article has been amended to reflect that the deluxe edition is for Shake the Snow Globe.
Today marks the three-year anniversary of Russ' major label debut (albeit twelfth album), There's Really a Wolf. The album marked a turning point in Russ' career, as he had signed with Columbia Records after putting in immense work on his Soundcloud-- you already know the story, so we'll leave it at that. Nonetheless, his success has caught the ire of many along the way, but Russ has always remained level-headed and dedicated to his craft. His craft, for what it's worth, includes both rapping and producing. He handled both aspects on There's Really a Wolf, which has since been certified platinum.
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Perhaps in honor or remembrance of the three-year anniversary, Russ has announced today that there is a deluxe edition of his 2020 album, Shake the Snow Globe, on the way. He acknowledged that there has been quite the gap since he dropped the album, saying on twitter, "ps, I know it’s been a minute but the ig lives, tik toks, challenges and just useless info got a little redundant lol had to dip so I could just make music and be present. Talk soon."
That doesn't seem to matter to his fans, who have replied excitedly to his announcement. The announcement came by way of a cover art reveal, which shows an upside wolf, being shaken up, with an orange background. When a fan asked about the artwork concept, Russ revealed: "The wolf (success, fame, etc) is getting shook (reset) in the snow globe (my world)."
Peep the new artwork and announcement below. We don't yet have a release date, so stay tuned.
Are you excited for this one?
Guapdad 4000 Talks Fighting Russ, Buddy Collab Album, & More
Guapdad 4000 hit up ‘s hiphopheads for an extensive AMA, with topics ranging from Russ to Dreamville and more.
Even if you aren’t wholly familiar with the name Guapdad 4000 or one of his many aliases, it’s likely you’ve heard the Oakland rapper in some capacity. Having first made a notable impression on the Revenge Of The Dreamers 3 album, Guap has since become a rising star in his circle, winning hearts and minds with his ongoing “Rona Raps” series and his most recent batch of new singles. Now, the Ferragamo Falcon has taken to ‘s hiphopheads subreddit for an extensive AMA, fielding most of the questions with a refreshing directness.
When asked about his infamous scuffle with Russ, which ultimately led to Guap taking a sucker-punch for his troubles, he expressed interest in staging a more even-keeled rematch. “It’s so fucked up because as much as I want to catch that n****a Slippin he don’t come outside he’s not in the culture he’s not in the field nobodies legitimately friends with him that matters and that’s the type of people I be around so I would never see him to catch my fade,” he explains. “He makes his money and stays out the way. An admirable move for a less admirable bitch ass n***a.”
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He also reveals that he’s been kicking around an idea, one that would find him in direct collaboration with Russ, albeit with a hostile twist. “I actually thought about challenging Russ to do a song with me where we diss each other and send in the verse to a neutral engineer who wouldn’t leak the verses to either side,” he reflects. “He would mix and then drop on SoundCloud. But I wanna fight that n***a to bad . Everybody knows i could out rap him. It’s kinda pointless.”
While there is plenty to unpack throughout the entire AMA, it should be noted that Guap did reveal he has an upcoming collaboration album with Buddy, as well as a few additional surprises tucked away in the cut. Not to mention, he’s been steadily waiting for J.I.D. to send him over a few tracks from the new Spillage Village album, so look for that to surface in the near future. For more from the Falcon, check out the full AMA over here.
Bia Names Bankroll Fresh As Favorite Rapper, Shows Love To Big Sean & Nicki Minaj
Bia recently talked about her musical influences and named a few artists like Bankroll Fresh, Big Sean, and Nicki Minaj as rappers that she loves.
Her style may have been heavily influenced by the late singer Aaliyah when she was growing up, but Bia has created her own lane. The rapper’s star has been rising for quite some time, especially after she was signed to Pharrell Williams’s i am OTHER record label. However, her career came to a bit of a standstill in the years to follow after she was shelved. Now that she’s able to spread her wings, we’ve seen much more of the Massachusetts native.
Russ added Bia to his single “Best on Earth,” a hit song that not only introduced Bia to a larger audience but also received a co-sign from Rihanna. “I would say that was one of the best days for me of my career,” the rapper told HipHopDX. “Because Rihanna, she is one of my favorite people in the world. And to have a co-sign like that from a peer, it already means a lot. But to have co-sign, like that from your favorite person. Like one of the people that you look to for inspiration or one of the people that you feel like set the bar. It was overwhelming for me. It just hit different.”
Bia calls herself a “real student of rap” who studies the styles and flows of those to be considered icons as well as her peers. “When it comes to rap and flow, I’ve always been heavy on rap. I’m a flow type of person,” Bia added. “I love Big Sean’s flow. I love Nicki Minaj. She influenced me a lot. I love Bankroll Fresh. Bankroll Fresh to this day is one of my favorite rappers of all time. People ask me, ‘Who was my biggest inspiration?’ They always think it was Big Sean and I always tell people it was Bankroll Fresh. I’m a real student of rap. I just love rap. I love music. I’m onto sh*t at least a year or two before it pops.” Check out Bia sharing a sexy clip of herself as she raps along to her latest single “Cover Girl” and watch her interview with us on Between the Lines below.
Lil Pump & Russ Trade Shots, Once Again
Lil Pump and Russ are still at odds with each other.
It’s been nearly two years since the release of Lil Pump‘s last album, Harverd Dropout, though he has continued to release loose singles and collaborations. However, it appears that he’s expanding past just hip-hop and into the world of punk. Taking to the ‘Gram recently, he shared a snippet of a new song that strays away from hip-hop entirely. But what stood out more was the rapper’s latest stylistic choice of shaving his eyebrows.
Now, Lil Pump has been known for his left-field choices in life so the attempt at making punk music and the fact that he shaved his eyebrows shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Nonetheless, Russ chimed in with his apparent concern. “Someone who cares bout him needs to call him ASAP,” Russ commented underneath Akademiks’ post. Though it seems incredibly unlikely that Russ actually holds any sort of care in his heart towards the leader of the “F*ck Russ” bandwagon, Pump reached equally petty levels in his response. “@russ you sister called to check I’m all good,” Pump wrote along with a winking emoji.
Considering Pump hasn’t mentioned Russ’ name in recent times, it seems a little odd that the “Best On Earth” rapper would randomly chime in. However, we can’t deny that Pump looks odd without any eyebrows. Peep Lil Pump and Russ’ exchange below.
Metro Boomin Clowns Russ’ Production Ability
Metro Boomin has an uproarious laugh at Russ' expense, proving there's still no love lost between these two producers.
It's no secret that Russ has made many enemies throughout his tenure in the game, including a conglomerate of Atlanta-based producers from Southside to Metro Boomin. The animosity sparked when Russ took shots at the modern-day production landscape, prompting Metro to fire back with a few choice words -- namely, "Russ Is Whack." And while that particular exchange transpired in April 2018, it would appear the bad blood has yet to fully cool.
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It's possible you've seen Russ dabbling with soul-samples, a behind-the-scenes clip the multi-platinum rapper uploaded on his Twitter page. In the video, Russ playfully concocts an instrumental in real-time, captioning his movement "#bringsoulsamplesback2020." The video ultimately earned the rapper a few shots for his efforts, with Childish Major and Guapdad 4000 expressing their varying degrees of disdain. It didn't end there, as Metro Boomin slid through to get his licks in, having a hearty digital guffaw at Russ' expense.
Where words might fail, emojis can speak a thousand words. Metro seemed to find Russ' soul-sample production particularly amusing, expressing his innermost feelings with a trifecta of joyful tear emojis. His disrespect was met with mixed reviews; some felt that Metro was stirring the pot at a convenient time, while others felt that Russ slander is always welcome. Where do you stand on the matter? Should these two bury the hatchet and challenge one another to a beat battle like Boi-1da and Hit-Boy are about to do?
Russ Gave Away $20K To 20 People On Twitter To Help Spread Love
Russ wanted to send some financial blessings to random people on Twitter and helped 20 people in need.
There are millions of people who have been financial adversely affected by the COVID-19 quarantine. While companies and government institutions have announced the various ways they are attempting to help citizens during this time, there are still those who are struggling daily. Russ shared on his Twitter account that he wanted to give back and without hesitation, his followers answered.
"I wanna give away $1000 to 20 different people," Russ tweeted on Thursday (March 25). He added, "Just gotta figure out how to select the 20..tryna boost some spirits during these bizarre times ❤️." It only took two and a half hours for the money to be distributed. "$20,000 has been sent out!!" he wrote in a followup post less than three hours later. "Hope that helped a lil ????❤️❤️."
Those who received the $1K gifts shared their stories online. "My mom has been going through it the past couple of weeks working in health care," one person wrote. They also included a video of their mother, as well. "She told me tonight that she’s never been given anything before. Well mom you deserve this money for all that you do for everybody. Thank you so much @russdiemon ?? you both mean the world. ?❤️." Check out the posts below.
Russ & Childish Major Subtly Beef, Guapdad 4000 & Boi-1da Join The Fun
The Russ Hate Train does not stop.
It's not like artists are able to tour, or go to the studio (let alone leave their house) right now, so as you can imagine, plenty of artists are using this isolation time as an opportunity to work on new music, and share it with the fans. Some are putting on nightly IG live performances, interviewing fellow celebs on Live, or hosting insane competitions like Tory Lanez.
Among the rappers who are sharing in-the-moment updates on whatever it is they're working, there is the always-working Russ. Russ has been emblematic of the idiom that hard work pays off, after he essentially blew himself up when he went on an ambitious journey to drop one song a week for a year. It's become common knowledge that the man is disliked among hip-hop masses, and apparently we can count the talented producer slash singer Childish Major in that camp.
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When Russ shared a video, innocently enough, that was captioned "bring soul samples back 2020." Childish re-shared with a comment, "Lol un quantize everything and it’ll be good." It wasn't too firey, let's be real, and it's unclear what exactly the tone is in his tweet. When a fan in reply to Childish said that they no longer listen to Russ, because Guapdad said so (stemming to the two's own beefing issues), Guap jumped right in to confirm this as fact: "Period."
Russ, perhaps always on the defensive, spoke back to Childish Major in a subtweet, and eventually, Boi-1da also chimed in, supporting Russ.
Childish replied from there, asking Russ to lighten up a bit. Maybe it was just a misconstrued light-hearted joke all along? Check out the banter below.
Russ Nearly Dies Doing Wiz Khalifa "Kush Up" Challenge
Russ doesn't know why Wiz Khalifa tried to murder him with the "Kush Up" challenge.
Instead of the push-up challenge -- which is still definitely a good thing to try out while in quarantine -- Gillie Da Kid decided to establish the "Kush Up" challenge. Effectively, it's the same exercise except, instead of working out your chest and arms, you're giving your lungs an uphill battle.
Unless you're an experienced smoker, we don't suggest trying out the Kush Up challenge. Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dogg accepted the competition without a second thought but, then again, they always have a joint placed between their fingers. Russ is an avid smoker, but he's not at the level that Wiz Khalifa holds himself at so when the latter invited the rapper to join the fun, he nearly ended up coughing his lungs out.
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"Ay @wizkhalifa why tf did you nominate me for this," asked Russ in a video upload to Instagram. "I almost died."
In the clip, the stages of discomfort that Russ encounters are visible on his face. At first, he doesn't have an issue but as he nears his limit, a scowl grows on his lips before he's forced to exhale quickly and presumably have a cough attack.
"I nominate no one because I will not subject anyone else to this suffering," added the artist.
Despite failing the challenge, Wiz Khalifa is still impressed with Russ, voicing his approval in the comments.
Russ Calls Travis Scott The "Pioneer" Of The Shift In Hip Hop
Russ sat down with “The Rap Pack” and discussed the current era of hip hop and how the genre has changed over the last few decades.
The debate about top rappers is an ongoing one, but according to Russ, the “Big 3” at the moment are Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and J. Cole. Rap culture is enduring a major shift as social media, self-publishing, and streaming services changes the way music is not only created, but it’s volume and accessibility.
While visiting The Rap Pack, Russ talked about the “gatekeepers” of hip hop. As these icons get older, fans of the genre will be looking for artists who are truly lyrical and innovative, but that doesn’t seem to be as important in a social media-driven culture. The shift is coming, and Russ believes he knows who will lead the way when it happens. “The pioneer of the shift is Travis Scott,” he said. “Because Travis…will outsell one of the Big 3 ’cause the fanbase is just that huge.”
The group went on to say that if that happens, then for the first time in rap-hip hop history, a non-rapper will be the leader of the genre. They all agreed that Travis can rap, but his selling point isn’t being a lyricist who will do “a four-minute Funk Flex freestyle,” said Russ. He added, “But Travis makes fire music.”
In order to keep hip hop in its purest form, whatever that looks like to the lovers of the game, Russ said it’s up to artists like “JID, [YBN] Cordae” and himself. Watch the insightful interview with Russ and The Rap Pack below.