Russ: ‘I’ll Say 2024 Was the Year of Doing Hard Things’

Russ was among the international hip-hop artists who lit up MDLBeast Soundstorm in Riyadh at the Down Beast stage on Dec. 14, 2024. At a massive music festival with 10 stages in Saudi Arabia, gathering a crowd of a few thousands is a big deal. Thankfully for the globe-trotting, millions-streamed Atlanta hip-hop star, all he had to do was come out to “Hello Habibi,” his remix with Nigerian star Olamide.

It marked the first time Russ performed the song as well, which was released in November. The brainwave to open with the song came to Russ just two hours prior to getting on stage at Soundstorm. “I was like, ‘Oh fuck. What am I doing? I should come out on ‘Hello Habibi’ in Saudi. I literally mentioned this show on my verse,” he says as we’re seated in the quietish artist village, the faint sounds of electronic beats booming in the background. He’s referring to the track’s lyrics, “2 shows in Saudi half a million a piece.”

Unlike a few other top-tier artists on the Soundstorm lineup, it was Russ’ “third or fourth” visit to perform in Riyadh and Saudi Arabia. “It’s so cool to just see the music reach this many people and for it to impact this many people, this far away from where the music was made. And for it to last this long… I’ve been doing this for a minute now,” he adds.

Admittedly “anti-social,” Russ isn’t really about catching any other sets at a massive festival like this – everyone from Eminem to Linkin Park to Busta Rhymes was on the lineup – but he’s more than happy to chat ahead of his set, especially about India.

Performing two shows in India in 2022, Russ also linked up with Mumbai rap stars like Divine and Emiway Bantai. On Divine’s 2022 album Gunehgar, Russ features on the song “Bornfire” and shot the music video as well while in the country. Looking back at the experience, Russ says he loves Indian music and is all praise for Divine when he sent over “Bornfire.” Russ opens up his playlists and points to how he’s still bumping everything that’s hot in India. “I got an Indian song on my playlist right now, by my guy Karan Aujla,” Russ says and then sings the hook to “Bachke Bachke” from Aujla and Ikky’s 2023 album Making Memories. He also shouts out Punjabi-Canadian artist Shubh, mentioning he’s got him on the playlist as well.

In an interview with Rolling Stone India at Soundstorm, Russ talks about the changes he’s undergone in 2024, including becoming an actor for filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan’s movie Trap (he’s aware of the Indian connect) and why he’s “about to be on some movie star shit.” Excerpts:

Rolling Stone India: Take me back to your India shows in 2022, and that trip. What was it like?

Russ: India shows were crazy, they were insane, man. I mean, the shows were bananas. I’ve been trying to get out there for so long because the fans in India were going so hard for me. It was just incredible. Linking up with Divine and shooting the music video [for “Bornfire”], that was sick as hell. Meeting up with Emiway and Divine after the show, it was just awesome. The love out there was incredible, man.

Tell me about how you became a part of Divine’s song “Bornfire”?

Me and Divine have been connected for a little bit. My jeweler, who’s been my jeweler for like, eight years, is Punjabi. So it’s like he knew Divine already. So I think he connected or maybe [Mass Appeal India’s head of A&R] Navjosh connected us.

You’ve also sampled Indian music in your beats online

Yeah, on “Can’t Get This Right.” Indian melodies are crazy. The scales that Indian music tends to use, are infectious, and they’re so cool to me. They’ve been used in hip-hop a lot, though, when you think about like, “Big Pimpin’” That’s like the famous one. Indian melodies are just sick. A lot of [producer] Scott Storch’s stuff is also kind of Indian melody, Middle Eastern melody. I just love it, man.

What do you think of hip-hop in India? What do you think of hip-hop taking over the world? As an artist who earned his name online first, what is it like being part of this global movement?

I think it helps make the art real to the artist. It’s one thing to make a song, and I love it, and then I put it out, and I see numbers on a screen online, and I see messages. But then when you go to a place and you do a show, and you see in real life, the people behind the accounts, you know what I mean? The people behind the numbers and the messages, it’s different. It confirms that this shit is really, like, making a difference in people’s lives

What’s in store at Soundstorm?

It’s tough, man, I have, what, 500 songs out, and I have an hour-long set, which is like 24 songs. So picking 24 out of 500 is just kind of fucking nuts. [Laughs]. But I’m excited, because I’ve never performed “Hello Habibi,” which is a new feature I did on Olamide’s record. He’s awesome.

I kind of feel bad for fans sometimes that come see me at festivals, because at festivals, I gotta kind of just run through the hits. It’s not my crowd, I can’t be up here playing B-cuts, can’t be playing a song with two million streams in a festival crowd. These people are trying to hear bops, you know what I mean?

With Saudi, I was just here in January [2024], so I’m like, it kind of is going to be the same set list-ish. I’m doing “Hello Habibi,” “This Is It,” “Working On Me” – those three are new but I’m expecting a lukewarm reaction to those songs [laughs]. We will see how it goes.

You were in the movie Trap recently. How did that come about?

Yes, man, M. Night, Shyamalan! We’re connected dog, hell yeah! More India connections. I didn’t even really think about that – my first movie was with an Indian director. Come on, bro, we’re here. Man, give me a passport. That should get me a residency, if you’re in an M. Night Shyamalan movie, you should get [Indian] citizenship.

[It] just fell out of the sky, similar to the Will Smith thing [Russ featured on the 2024 single “Work of Art” with Jaden Smith]. My manager gets an email saying, “Oh, M. Night Shyamalan wants to reach out.” And we’re like, “What? You’re full of shit.” And then he hits me back, he’s like, “No, it’s a real thing.” And then before you know it, I’m on FaceTime with M. Night Shyamalan and his daughter, Saleka. I think she put him on to [my] music. And Saleka is fucking incredible, incredible writer, singer, musician. It’s just insane, life.

Are you doing more movies?

Fuck yeah, bro. I was just a co-lead in a movie called Don’t Move that’s coming out in September or October. Bro, I’m telling you, I’m about to be on some movie star shit. That shit was a life-changing experience to shoot this movie – Don’t Move it made me fall in love with acting. I’m obsessed with it. I can’t wait to get back on set. I can’t wait to learn more. But I’m definitely getting on some movie star shit. Like, I’m trying to be in movies. That shit was fucking awesome, and I will be in movies, you heard it here first.

Give me a quick recap of your year.

Quick recap of 2024: I crushed it [laughs]. I’ll say 2024 was the year of doing hard things. It was the year of me having to confront a lot of old habits, old ways of thinking that I had become accustomed to that no longer served me. And it was – and is – very hard to let some of them go. It was a year of setting difficult boundaries. It was a year of doing hard shit, man. I’m excited for it to be over. I’m excited for next year.

What’s your favorite new place you visited in 2024?

Dublin. Oh my god, I love Dublin. I was walking around on the streets of Dublin after the show, getting hammered off Guinness. It was fucking incredible.

What’s the favorite song you made in 2024?

Shit, it’s not out yet. I’m like seven songs deep on this new album. It’s one of the songs off the album. The album is called W!LD.

The reason behind [the title] is it’s about embracing the unknown of life, aka the wild and that means embracing the fact that at all times, there’s always going to be gratitude and grief simultaneously happening. A lot of times in my life, I’ve resisted any of the lows, because I could have swore that if I get famous and rich and successful, it’s all just supposed to be good now, right? So I resisted all that.

That causes a lot of suffering when you resist reality. The album title comes from the phase of my life that I’m in, which is entering into the unknown, and I’ve been in the unknown, but it’s more so reframing my perspective of the unknown, instead of feeling like I gotta micromanage everything and do my best to make sure bad things don’t happen or whatever. It’s more so just embracing and accepting the fact that there is going to be grief, but there’s also going to be highs and to go at it with faith and humility.