Russ Sparks Music Journalism Debate, Says Journalism 'Does Not Exist' Without Artists

Russ lashed out at the world of music journalism to give his take on the industry.

The rapper hopped on X Friday night (Oct. 11) to drop an explanation of his "issues" with the current state of music journalism.

“Respected journalists want artists to do interviews with them (makes sense) but here's the issue,” Russ began. “Most journalists don’t have their own platform so that somewhat forces the artist to fund and produce the interview themselves (I’ve done it cuz I see the value in it but I understand if an artist doesn’t want to pay for their own interview).”

Russ continued on, explaining that artists want to “reach the most amount of people” which is why they are speaking more with streamers — plus the elephant in the room that people just don’t like reading words right now. “Nobody cares about READING interviews on magazine outlets anymore,” he wrote. “Video interviews are king and video interviews cost $ (see point 1).”

Russ ended his initial tirade with a solution for journalists — to make their own brands. “Really the only solution is journalists, just like everyone else, have to build up their brand/fanbase and name themselves so that they can attract artists to their platform OR artists just invest money in producing their own interviews with respected journalists and putting it on their own platform (I’ve done this with B Dot couple times).”

His posts, understandably, lit a fire in writers to defend their professions. Russ turned the volume up on his disrespect — ultimately telling one writer what he really feels about journalism.

“You are a journalist. Your career does not exist without artists or athletes or whoever it is you journal about,” he replied to cultural writer Najma Sharif. “My life (and all artists) and career exists without yall. Yall get too bold on here and forget what role you actually even play in the grand scheme of things. Your job is to stand on the sideline and wait for other people to do shit in order for you to even have a job. Relax.”

It’s worth noting that he was perhaps perturbed by the angry messages lobbed his way from writers — which is what he alluded to later, writing that he was responding to rudeness that he received. But the sea of messages following the previous one doubled down on his initial thoughts, telling writers that their best bet is to build their brands because that’s where the music journalism industry is headed.

Russ ended up hopping on an X Space for about 26 minutes to continue breaking down his point. Afterward, he kept responding to people to prove his point before deciding to hop off for the night — leaving writers everywhere, like me, to stew over his words the next day.