How Rapper ‘Russ’ Found Fame in Less Than One Year

This unique tactic all but guaranteed him success

Dylan Hughes
3 min readJul 24, 2022

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Photo via The Odyssey

In today’s fast-moving social media world, it’s not rare for a musician to blow up overnight.

That’s why Russ knew he had to get in everyone’s face — and have artillery ready once fans started piling up.

Russ was not a new kid on the block when he blew up in 2015. He had released 11 projects and barely made any headway in the music industry, despite feeling like he was making great music.

After so many flops, he decided to switch up his strategy: he would release one song a week until he blew up.

One Song a Week = Social Media Stardom

Instead of compiling a bunch of songs into an album that people probably wouldn’t listen to, he would give each song its own shine. They would get their own promotion and their own artwork, giving people on social media the chance to digest a small bit of Russ and share it with their friends and followers.

Russ went into his lab for a couple of months to build up a 26-week inventory of songs. He wanted a half-year worth of songs built up so he could have some freedom to make new music.

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Dylan Hughes

Three-time author writing on whatever interests me. Follow me on Instagram: chyaboidylan