There are rappers who aren’t from Atlanta, but Russ isn’t one of them. Aside from being from the reigning capital of hip-hop, Russ’s main claim to fame is that his music is “produced, mixed, mastered, engineered, written” by him, as he mentions.
“My goals are more and more tangible,” raps Russ on “There’s Really A Wolf,” his Columbia Records debut, which features snippets of his singing and a mellow nylon-string guitar line. This is one of those records that’s sort of about how hard Russ worked to get where he is, and how awesome he thinks he is. Russ sings a lot of his own choruses, with noticeable absence of AutoTune wizardry.
Russ is at his best when he steers away from hip-hop bragging and gives in to his sob-singing about heartache, like on “Cherry Hill.” Before his major-label signing, Russ earned a lot of attention by releasing a stream of songs — near one a week for two years — on SoundCloud. That level of productivity attracted fans and industry attention.
One other thing that distinguishes Russ from a lot of emerging hip-hop talent is that he’s declined to load his record with collaborative features with other artists. Russ has no shortage of confidence.
Russ performs at The Dome at Toyota Presents Oakdale Theatre, 95 S. Turnpike Road, Wallingford, Friday, May 26, at 8 p.m. $34 and up. 203-265-1501, livenation.com.
