Trailblazers is an MBW interview series that turns the spotlight on music entrepreneurs with the potential to become the global business power players of tomorrow. This time, we speak to artist and producer, Russ. Trailblazers is supported by TuneCore.
As the name of this series suggests, and explains in the opener above, MBW’s Trailblazers turns the spotlight on some of the contemporary music industry’s most interesting entrepreneurs.
For the final installment of 2023, we caught up with Russ, an independent artist who has been challenging the power dynamic of the music business for more than a decade
Russ (Russell Vitale) is a rapper, singer, songwriter, producer, record label owner and best-selling author who achieved significant success independently before signing a deal with Columbia Records in late 2016, releasing his major label debut, There’s Really a Wolf, in May 2017.
His career has been one defined by DIY ethics – writing, producing and engineering There’s Really a Wolf himself – and releasing a vast volume of self-produced work prior to achieving wider mainstream attention following the release of that album.
Russ points to his ‘do it yourself’ approach and high creative output on the track, I’m Here, from There’s Really a Wolf, in which he proclaims: “Singin’, rappin’, mixin’ masterin’, engineerin’ producin’/That’s every song with no exception, plus the catalog longer than a lot of veterans.”
He released 11 mixtapes independently between 2011 and 2014 and a song a week on SoundCloud for “two and a half years straight” prior to signing with Columbia.