Russ

Uproxx cover star Russ might be best known for his beats-and-bars approach to straightforward rap or crooning through R&B ballads, but on his latest single “Drives” — his first of 2024 — he dips into a new well of inspiration: millennial soft rock akin to Plain White T’s’ 2006 hit “Hey There Delilah.”

Strumming an acoustic guitar and putting on a surprisingly adept falsetto, Russ reels off a tale of heartbreak (although it’s told from a third-person perspective this time around). Russ narrates as his sad protagonist smokes a bowl and hits the road while reflecting on her messy past relationships.

However, this time around, she learns her lesson; instead of going back to an old flame who flamed out, she looks forward to the future. It’s not exactly optimistic but there’s a thread of hope and resilience humming along under all of it. It’s pretty and plaintive, and honestly, I couldn’t be too mad at him for switching lanes for a while and seeing where “Drives” — and more tunes like it — will take him.

The Atlanta entertainer explained the departure in a post on Twitter, encouraging artists to make music that they want, not just what’s popular or expected. It’s good advice. Check out “Drives” above.

Uproxx cover star Russ has allegedly been the victim of a home burglary, according to a report filed to Georgia’s Roswell Police Department that was obtained by TMZ. They claim that he had called into the station around 1 a.m. on Friday morning, after spotting the thieves through a safety camera.

It has been reported that they stole five guns, including “a pair of Glock 19s, a CZ Scorpion, and two Walther handguns.” A pair of Chanel handbags were also taken, with a pink one that was valued at $15,000 and a black one that was worth $9000. Finally, they also drove off with a 2020 Mercedes-Benz C-Class AMG that belonged to Russ’ girlfriend.

By the time officers arrived, they discovered that the front door was open and the burglars had tossed the place looking for items to take. They entered the property at around 10:15 p.m. on Thursday, as at least two used the basement door to enter. The group then left with suitcases and bags around midnight.

Thankfully, Russ was not home at the time, and nobody was injured. While the thieves are still at large, the musician was able to communicate with the officers through FaceTime — upon the discovery that his house had been broken into.

Based on the footage, the police haven’t identified much about the suspects, but hopefully Russ can get his things back soon.

Russ has long been an outspoken advocate for going the independent route in the music business, frequently touting its many advantages over signing to a major label. However, that approach also comes with some drawbacks, forcing Russ to stand up for himself recently with regard to the first-week sales accounting for his recently released album, Santiago.

On Monday, Russ accused Billboard and music data provider Luminate of unfairly discounting several thousand sales for his album, keeping him from a top-ten spot on the Billboard 200 chart. “Billboard & Luminate took away ANOTHER 4,000 of my REAL sales over the weekend making that 10,000 sales total they took away from me while allowing major labels to fake their streams and sales and do monopolistic merch bundles,” he argued, elaborating that “only major labels are allowed to do merch bundles because the only approved vendor is a major label vendor.”

However, he ended his missive on a positive note, reminding followers, “These numbers and charts are made up. The impact however is not. Shoutout to the fans.”

Russ was projected to sell around 52,000 units by Hits Daily Double last week, a particularly robust figure for an independent artist without major label support. This would have seen him slot neatly into the top 10, just behind Taylor Swift and Hozier, and it’s clear Russ considered this a feather in his cap.

Of course, projections are just projections. HitsDD can only work with available data and trends and take an educated guess at where things will end up, so there’s no guarantee that Russ was going to sell 50k, only that it looked like he might. Other albums, like Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) or Lover, could have seen big spikes, or Santiago could have lost momentum mid-week. However, he does have a point about counting sales from only specific retail avenues.

Unfortunately, Billboard is between a rock and a hard place there; the publications previously incensed other major artists due to allowing merch bundles at one point — the rule has since been changed, which angered different artists. The truth is, no accounting system would be perfect, because someone would always feel they got “cheated” if they disappointed their own expectations. Meanwhile, Coi Leray seems to have had the best approach recently, dismissing the assumed importance of first-week sales in lieu of enjoying her continued impact and the fact that even without splashy figures, she’s living her dream and touching fans with her art.