Russ 19,668

Russell Vitale is a rapper from Atlanta, Georgia, by way of New Jersey. A lifelong fan of rap, Russ began writing raps in his notebook at the age of 7. At 14, he began making beats, producing for his friend Bugus who had dreams of making it as a rapper. In high school, Russ made the decision to also pursue a career as a rapper himself.

Between 2011 and 2014, Russ released 11 mixtapes. These received minimal attention, and Russ decided to wait to release his debut album until he had enough of an audience. What followed was 96 consecutive weekly singles released to his SoundCloud page. Two notables among the slew of singles were “What They Want” and “Losin Control,” both of which ended up being certified 2x Platinum by the RIAA.

On May 5, 2017, Russ released his debut album There’s Really A Wolf, which spawned 7 singles with Gold certification or higher and was certified Platinum within a year of its release. A year later, his sophomore project ZOO came to be on September 7, 2018, this time opting to enlist external producers and featured artists. Then, at the end of January 2020, he dropped his long-awaited SHAKE THE SNOW GLOBE album, where he talks about love, haters and his wealth.

Nearly every song by Russ is produced, mixed, mastered, engineered, written, and recorded by Russ himself and he renowned his title of being an independent artist. In 2020, he signed away from Columbia Records to fully become independent and declared in an Instagram post his milestone.

In 2021, Russ released a series of singles; in December, he released his first independent album after signing away from Columbia Records, titled Chomp 2, wherein he recruited some of the rap game’s most talented lyricists and producers to create the second installment towards the CHOMP series.

2022 brought Russ new successes as he started off the year with releasing his golden single “HANDSOMER,” which then turned into a remix through TikTok and charted top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. Later that year, he followed up with a short EP, If Not Now, When?, combining emotional melodies with reflective and braggadocious bars.