Russ has been a vocal critic of the streaming era and its negative effects on the culture of music, and he has now used his success in the live space to double down on his stance.
On Thursday (June 6), the Atlanta MC passed through Los Angeles for a sold-out concert at the Kia Forum in Inglewood and celebrated the show’s success the next day on social media with a clip of him performing to a packed crowd.
AD LOADING...
In response, a fan shared an image from the rapper’s show in Phoenix, Arizona that showed audience members gathered toward the front of the stage while the venue floor toward the back seemed relatively empty. In the caption, the person wrote: “Stop lying bro ..we was there..it looks packed in this video because of the angle you recorded.”
Quoting the tweet, the 31-year-old clapped back with: “I’ll break this down for you since you’re an idiot. You can only sell a certain amount of tickets on the floor because of fire hazard.
AD LOADING...
“Some artists put seats on the floor to make it look more full. I don’t, cuz I like for the floor to be turnt so everyone crams to the front hence the space at the back. Phoenix & LA both sold out. How you hatin and a fan. What a fucking loser lmao.”
SOLD OUT THE FORUM IN LA LAST NIGHT
real life fans pic.twitter.com/65UrO44VDE
— SANTIAGO (@russdiemon) June 7, 2024
I’ll break this down for you since you’re an idiot
You can only sell a certain amount of tickets on the floor because of fire hazard
Some artists put seats on the floor to make it look more full
I don’t, cuz I like for the floor to be turnt so everyone crams to the front… https://t.co/LPQQaMSgyd
— SANTIAGO (@russdiemon) June 9, 2024
The “Losin Control” hitmaker then shifted his focus to the current state of the music industry and elaborated on why he continues to find success, as evidenced by his ongoing It Was You All Along tour.
“Don’t be mad at me selling out arenas cuz your fav can’t,” he continued. “yall start tryna make excuses and do all sorts of mental gymnastics in an attempt to figure out the disconnect. They are faking their streams which is why the ticket sales don’t match the streams. Simple. But stay out my mentions with the stupidity.
AD LOADING...
“I don’t even like doin all the rah rah puff my chest out talk anymore tbh cuz I’ve learned that time passing and outlasting everyone tends to do the trick but every once in a while someone just says something too dumb for me to ignore. Maybe another year of therapy and I’ll be there.”
Don’t be mad at me selling out arenas cuz your fav can’t…yall start tryna make excuses and do all sorts of mental gymnastics in an attempt to figure out the disconnect. They are faking their streams which is why the ticket sales don’t match the streams. Simple. But stay out my…
— SANTIAGO (@russdiemon) June 9, 2024
I don’t even like doin all the rah rah puff my chest out talk anymore tbh cuz I’ve learned that time passing and outlasting everyone tends to do the trick but every once in a while someone just says something too dumb for me to ignore. Maybe another year of therapy and I’ll be…
— SANTIAGO (@russdiemon) June 9, 2024
Last year, Russ took a jab at his peers who fake their streams and even joked about following suit despite having an impressive stat sheet of his own.
“Real shit, I’m bout to start faking my streams like everyone else [laughing face emojis],” he wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “It’s marketing when you think about it. General person is a sheep.”
“If you see a song has let’s say 100m streams and you haven’t heard it, you think ‘damn I’m tripping I needa go peep.’ And then the fake streams get you real streams. Such a ridiculous game but f**k it, maybe I’ll film the whole process and drop a doc after.”
Prior to that, he levied some pretty serious allegations against Billboard and Luminate — the companies responsible for overseeing the United States’ music charts — accusing them of cheating him out of thousands of sales from his sixth studio album Santiago.
AD LOADING...
Russ made the claims on social media after it was reported that his latest project had debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard 200, opening with 42,000 album-equivalent units in its first week.
While that figure would be a respectable tally for any independent artist, he felt it was a little low considering he was initially projected to crack the Top 10 with over 50,000 units.
AD LOADING...
“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 (only major labels are allowed to do merch bundles because the only approved vendor is a major label vendor),” he wrote.
“These numbers and charts are made up. The impact however is not. Shoutout to the fans.”
AD LOADING...
The Chomp MC also reshared two posts from his manager Milan Ackerman, who accused major labels of “inflating” their artists’ numbers with fake streams, implying there’s a conspiracy at play.
“I don’t think y’all realize how nuts this is…Billboard charts are inflated by fake data which is being verified by only one company, Luminate,” Russ wrote in his quote-tweet. “Both Billboard & Luminate are owned by the same company [facepalm emoji] Anyway imma sit back and watch Milan expose the whole shit [popcorn emojis] [crying face emojis].”
