I didn't go to my prom. I didn't go to my homecoming.
— Russ
When I was coming up, I was, and am, producing, mixing, mastering, and writing everything. I would say that all the time. For one, self-sufficiency is a message that should be put out there: you don't have to outsource everything. Two, I'm proud of it.
I think people sometimes get my message misconstrued and believe I'm trying to brag, but I'm genuinely trying to show people that you can do it all yourself, and there's so much power and freedom in that.
I love 2Pac, the cadences of 2Pac.
I started playing instruments before I started making beats, and I was never the best guitarist or the best pianist or the best drummer. And when I started making beats, I was not the best beatmaker, and when I started making hooks, I was not the best vocal melody person. When I first started rapping, I wasn't the best rapper at all.
What inspired me was the love of making music and having no one around and just saying, 'I've gotta figure this out.'
I like making songs and playing '2K.'
I love to sit down and have a conversation with like-minded people.
I didn't get into music; music got into me.
Every time I put out music and it goes well, it's a confirmation of your taste and your gut.
I feel like I love a little bit of everything. I grew up listening to the stuff my parents liked, from Earth, Wind & Fire, Luther Vandross, Billy Joel to Bruce Springsteen and The Mommas & The Poppas.
I was voted Most Likely to Make a Teacher Retire.
I have an unremovable stain of self-confidence.
From the engineer to the producer, all of these roles are critical to creating a song.
When I was making beats, I don't remember thinking about doing it as a career, I just remember that every day I wanted to do it.
Advice number one: listen to your gut - it's never gonna lead you wrong. Number two: trust yourself. The root of everything is self-belief.
When you're sitting in the basement trying to get on, you have no choice - you've gotta figure out how to make a song: 'I've gotta bang on these buttons until it sounds good.'
I'm not obsessed with the idea of doing what you're supposed to be doing when you're a rapper. Walking around with cash that you haven't even provisioned for tax. Spending all of your time in the designer store to create some weird impression. I'm not interested, bro. I just like making music, and that's it.
I would have only doubted myself if I was really attached to the result of what I was doing, but I was always doing it and will always do it for the love of making songs, and if you liked it you liked it, if you didn't, you didn't. It was always pure and always will be pure.
My raps be crazy, and my hooks are nasty.
My best friend - who I've known since I was 12 - and I started the DIEMON company together.
I'm not sitting around, waiting for something to run across the Internet so I can go, 'Oh, that's what I'mma write about.' I just go around, live life, make music, and it's epic.
My friends had to convince me to get a Twitter and Instagram.
If you're an artist, create music and put it out on the Internet. If you do this consistently, your fan base will continue growing, and that will power your entire career.
Being self-made means doing things your own way - and doing it without any handouts.
You can have a bunch of individually good players, but it doesn't matter. You gotta learn to play like a team.
I don't deviate - once you get validated for being you, I don't know why you would deviate. I stick to my gut and my taste.
Drake is my favorite rapper.
I think talking things out is therapeutic.
When I made 'What They Want,' I was going crazy. When I made 'Losin Control,' I was going crazy, when I made all the songs that are on my Soundcloud, every time I was out, I went crazy, like it was still the first song that I made.
Trends die. That's the natural thing about a trend. It's natural for people to be followers and be sheep and go with a trend.
Drake and Kanye make me want to get better.
That's the thing: I'm not opposed to working with people. I'm just not one of these people that feels the need to hop around the industry and get this guy's beat and get this guy's hook.
