Black Business Month is inextricably tied to the concept of “paying dues.” Nothing comes without first putting in some time and consistent effort to ensure not just the success of any given endeavor, but to build the trust that ensures that partners, customers, and investors will have confidence in offering their custom.
Bay Area rapper LaRussell has most certainly paid his dues.
Like fellow Vallejo native E-40, LaRussell has built an enthusiastically engaged following outside the confines of the traditional major label system through his brand, Good Compenny. However, he’s taken it a step further, monetizing endeavors far beyond the established revenue streams we’ve come to expect from independent rappers, fueled by a Field Of Dreams-inspired philosophy: If you build it, they will come. But first, LaRussell had to build the trust among fans that would give them the confidence in supporting left-field strategies like backyard shows, sharing stock in music releases, and a lifetime membership to all of LaRussell’s shows. He has built a business from the ground up by being himself, taking chances, and paying dues.
“That’s just part of the process,” he explains of how he built that trust. “You start with one, one turn to two, two turn to four, four turn to eight, eight turn to 16, 16 turn to 32, 32 turn 64. And we just embraced that process the entire time. I’m never really trying to win people who don’t f*ck with me. I over-deliver to the people who love me, and they go tell everybody else.”
That’s how the Bay Area rapper gets fans to buy into each new product he rolls out, by paying his dues. Naturally, this means being great at the core skill at the heart of his entire business plan: Rapping. He’s not just great at the craft, either. He’s also hella productive. According to Genius.com, LaRussell has released 18 albums since 2018. Per Tidal, that number is closer to 33. The point is, he puts out so much music at such a rapid pace, that it’s hard to consistently keep track. This is a benefit of his indie status, but it’s also by design — and because he has so many revenue streams, LaRussell doesn’t worry about oversaturating the market.
“I make good dope,” he chuckles at the thought that he might be overdoing it. “I make good dope, and as long as you do dope, you’re going to come to me for it. Some n****s eat McDonald’s every day because that’s what they love, and that’s our focus. I’m not really focused on the people who don’t want to be here no more. I focus on the people who want to come to my crib, the people who love what I do, and I keep supplying it.”
That consistency and productivity not only cements fans’ willingness to stream his musical output, but also their belief in each new product he offers. For instance, although backyard shows — concerts he literally holds in fans’ backyards — and selling stock in his streams are at least based on his core work, he’s since been successful in offering experiences that don’t have anything to do with music in the first place.
“We got so many different ways to get paper off this music sh*t,” he enthuses. “It don’t even make sense. I be trying to put the OGs on all the different ways because it’s endless now. It goes beyond masters and publishing and live performances now.” For example: “I go straight to the people and I let them make offers on everything. I get paid to go hang out with fans. I opened it up to where you could book me to come play pickleball and come chill. We’ve just made every aspect of being an artist monetizable.” Just imagine being able to hoop with Tupac, or shoot pool with Jay-Z. Fans often dream of just being around their favorite rappers, sharing space and time with them… LaRussell has made this a reality while turning it into a business opportunity.
However, despite doing this interview for Black Business Month, LaRussell scoffs at the idea of BEING a Black business himself. “I just define myself as a business. I’m just in the business of humanity. I like to do dope sh*t and meet dope humans and share dope sh*t and just try to make people smile and cultivate through what we do. And I like to make paper. I don’t really look at it as this is a Black business or separate from anything. I got a bunch of different races and ethnicities just within my network and in my group. We just building big business in general.”
Which is, perhaps, the core of why historian John William Templeton and engineer Frederick E. Jordan Sr. founded this admittedly esoteric agenda 20 years ago: to show that a Black-owned business could and should be considered as innovative and profitable as any other. It highlights the possibilities, just as LaRussell’s own successes paint a broader picture of success for hip-hop artists. Even when an idea seems less viable on paper — or even in practice — LaRussell understands that paying dues is all part of the process.
“Everything works for me,” he says. “Everything works as long as I do the work. Only things don’t work is the things that I don’t do the work for, but everything work. Gold cards, stock, the residency shows, the offer-based systems, the Proud To Pay, merch, everything works. Some things take a little bit longer to develop, but everything works… You just got to build every day. You just got to get in there and do your work, and you never know what’s going to come from that work. Something might pop up that alters everything that you have planned to do in the next five because it happened tomorrow… I announce shows and I don’t even put the address until close to the date. So people just buy tickets based on trusting me. They don’t give a f*ck where it is. I could be in the middle of anywhere and they going to come because they just trust me. When I put out new technology, they just trust LaRussell because I built a trustworthy brand and I haven’t steered the people wrong.”