August 31, 2025
LaRussell’s trajectory could resemble the paths of artists Houston artist Lil Flip, Chicago’s Chance The Rapper, and Mississippi’s Big K.R.I.T., who all utilized the independent route to gain the attention of major labels.
Rising Bay Area rap artist LaRussell is a throwback to the days of independent artists selling their own pressed CDs out the back of their trunks, he utilizes community support to both circumvent and supplement a lack of a major label deal, much like the independent Houston artists who once claimed their lack of a major label deal was both a badge of honor and evidence of their ability to get it out the mud before eventually cashing out and signing a record distribution deal.
Although, unlike those artists, he does not hide the fact that he wants the relative security that comes with a major label deal with bravado, his creativity, like that of the artists who came before him, was born of the same necessity: In order to get where he wants to go, he still has to make money.
To that end, the rapper and his team have crafted a strategy that fits well with his aims, concert tickets, physical media and other items are offered to the public on a sliding scale in auction style bids that start as low as $1 and increases from that point as much as consumers want to pay, similar in concept to popular pay what you want hosting sites for mixtapes.
In addition, potential collaborators can submit bids directly to him; however, LaRussell reserves the right to reject any bid that is less than his standard fee of $500 for a verse. As NBC News noted, his policy is to spend no more than 15 minutes composing his verse, so the rapid-fire approach can add up quickly, depending on how fast the tracks come together.
“You cultivate a completely different experience,” LaRussell told the outlet ahead of a recent performance. “I have every age there (at his shows) from 1 to 100. Granny not coming out at 10 p.m., and you don’t want the little homies out at 10 p.m. I wasn’t independent because I didn’t want to sign and I didn’t like the labels. I was independent because I didn’t have no other option.”
LaRussell saw what the late Nipsey Hustle was able to work out using his own model, wherein the rapper charged $100 for 1,000 copies of his album in 2013, pocketing $100,000 more or less overnight. However, he wasn’t necessarily comfortable asking folks to come off $100 for an album, so he made some adjustments to Nipsey’s arrangement.
“I didn’t know a bunch of people who had $100 to spend on an album, so I was like, ‘I’m going to let them pay me anything,’ because I got zero dollars. So if they give me $1, I am up. It really helped me build the base and establish the infrastructure.”
More recently, he launched his own version of Nipsey’s initiative where instead of charging $100 for an album or a mixtape, LaRussell decided to give his fans a more intimate look at his show, which includes a cozy show at a smaller venue, unlimited access to future backyard shows, a tour of his childhood home, and other perks, which he dubbed the “Backyard Show Experience.”
As a result, LaRussell nearly duplicated Nipsey’s feat, selling 67 of those tickets, resulting in a $67,000 influx of cash in addition to his standard fees for a show.
What’s more, since he is still independent, he doesn’t have to wrangle and wrest control of his masters or other publishing rights from a major label, an arrangement that infamously infuriated the late Prince so much that he changed his legal name to a symbol and released an album under the moniker “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.”
Although he recognizes the freedom in his path, LaRussell is also cognizant of the risks that are attendant to doing things with no real safety net.
“There’s a different roller coaster when you’re independent because you’re constantly taking risks for a reward that you see in your head that may not be something that looks completely tangible yet, but you have to just go with what you feel,” the rapper told the outlet.
LaRussell’s likely trajectory could resemble the paths of Houston artist Lil Flip as well as more recent acts like Chicago’s Chance The Rapper and Mississippi’s Big K.R.I.T., who all utilized the independent route to gain the attention of major labels.
Some, like K.R.I.T., who has since addressed the problems of major label meddling, have since gone from being on a roster at a major label back to independence, where the art is the focus and not fulfilling a set number of albums to satisfy a record deal.
As Lexington, Kentucky’s Devine Carama, a regional performer who has been an independent artist for the past 20 years pointed out to the outlet, what K.R.I.T. ultimately figured out on his path could be the North Star for an artist like LaRussell.
The key, Carama told NBC News, is to focus on building a fanbase “that loves and supports you — not just your music, but you.”
He continued, “I don’t see how it’s possible to be a Hip-Hop artist and not be connected to the community that you come from and somehow using the culture to give back.”
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