Analytic Dreamz: Notorious Mass Effect - "RUSS & MELII - BEST FRIEND"

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/AnalyticNotorious Mass Effect: Deep Dive into Russ' Latest MovesThis segment of Notorious Mass Effect by Analytic Dreamz explores the recent wave making headlines in Russ' world.Fresh Release: Hot off the heels of the successful collaboration with 6LACK on "Workin' on Me," Russ drops another track, "Bestfriend," featuring Melii.Familiar Territory: Boi-1da, a frequent collaborator on Russ' projects, takes the production helm for "Bestfriend."Hitting the Road: Gear up, Russ fans! The "It Was You All Along Tour" featuring Russ, 6LACK, and Melii kicks off on May 31st in Seattle. Mark your calendars!Building Momentum: This tour announcement follows a string of successful releases in 2024, including "Drives," "In The Dirt," and "Work This Out."A Look Back at Russ' Success:In 2023, Russ' 16th studio album, "Santiago," made a strong debut at #12 on the Billboard 200 chart.The anticipation is high for a potential Atlanta stop to be added to the current 10-date tour schedule, ending in Brooklyn on June 28th.Don't Miss Out:Russ World members already have access to tickets.Live Nation and Spotify presales begin on March 13th. Stay tuned for wider ticket sales announcements.Tune in to Notorious Mass Effect for more in-depth discussions on the latest music industry trends and artist developments!Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

I pay for a number one. Oh, yeah. What? What is the number one cost? What is the number one song in America cost? The reality is this, you do have to have a real fan base to a certain extent. And your song has to actually be moving around organically. Once it's that, they'll push the button on it.

It's a campaign. It could be like, it's like a 12-week campaign, and it might be 60 grand, 70 grand, whatever it is. That's it. Oh, yeah. That's 70 grand, the ROI is crazy, because that 70-gram might bring you back. 200 300 yeah this is why Russ is one of my favorite just musicians in the industry as far as me growing up because the priceless gems that this man drops consistently throughout the course of his music career is insane because even along with that he had uh

difficult time with the media because of the perception of him being too arrogant, which of course was definitely brought on by himself a lot when it came to him wanting recognition for his ability to create the beat, the rhyme scheme. At one point everybody started making jokes like, oh, he created the mic, he created the studio that he was in, you know, things of that nature because of the amount of credit that he wanted when it came to him just being an overall producer of music. So now, fast forward with him having one of the more successful careers that I've seen as far as somebody actually using the words and then their actions backing it up, because if you don't know,

Russ is the first solo rapper to perform at the pyramids in Egypt all the way back in October 25th, 2022. too. If you don't think that's a feat, then just as Kanye West and Travis Scott what happened when they tried to perform at the pyramids in Egypt. So anyways, the biggest thing I wanted to get into, Russ just dropped the new track titled Best Friend featuring somebody that he's taken on tour, who is Melly. And I think I have the tour right here. Yeah, okay, so the tour right here from May 31st all the way to from May 31st all the way to

June 28th I think that's what it says yeah so it's not the longest of tours but of course it is a tour nonetheless with Black and Melly and I just got to say having those two artists on tour is interesting because

The amount of quality from Black, from Russ, from Melly, I think they will give a unique performance that the fans will probably enjoy as far as in totality. So to bring those two artists on tour with you is very interesting because, you know, Black is more R&B. Not saying Melly isn't, but, you know, she could switch it up a little bit. Russ could switch it up a little bit. But at the end of day, it's a very interesting lineup that he has for this tour.

Anyways, so I'm somebody. other things I wanted to get into is I think it was the working on me track one of the things I love to do as a podcaster is to show the people who support the numbers and just how much the support is helping as as a podcaster your numbers aren't really public knowledge it's not like YouTube where you can see the views and things of that nature you kind of have to screenshot and basically post it for people to see the specific numbers of what you do when it comes to

statistically and analytically speaking. So for Russ, this specific track working on me, as you can see, he has done over 3 million streams and all time streams for this release. And then of course he has more numbers right here and he's just showing you screenshots

because obviously it's harder to get certain numbers whenever you're in to be. Because if you don't know, Russ is completely independent. If you're wondering why he hasn't put out a project in so long and why he's just putting out tracks 24-7, it's simply because of him being independent. And I take that back. He put out a project back in 2023, which was the 16th studio album, Santiago, which debuted number 12th on the Billboard 200, which a lot of people would get clown for debuting that low for your first week sales.

but like I said this man is independent and majority if not all of the sales is going directly to him and the reason why I say majority and not all is because he still has a team and a manager that he probably pays for and things that nature but as far as a major label distribution deal this man is seemingly completely independent so that's why nobody really clowned him about the numbers because they see him going on tour at the pyramids and being able to set him out um all right look at this um actually i don't know if i'm gonna have the video version but anyways he has a lot of people in the crowd when he goes to perform so obviously it's real as far as his core fan base so uh he put up a screenshot of his stats basically saying working on me is number

15 on the velocity chart number 50 is on addiction chart 54 on genius chart uh four on genius R&B chart, 49 and USA Shazam chart. Basically as an independent artist, I would say it's more difficult. It's not impossible, but it's more difficult to get playlisting simply for the fact that they don't want to promote somebody that's not under a major label because of how major labels allegedly compensate them for playlisting their artists. Let's just put it like that. And then another obstacle that.

Russ had to overcome being an independent. It's basically him accusing Billboard and Luminate of taking away 10,000 sales of his album, Santiago, claiming the charts are inflated by fake data. And then Russ, you know, combated that by basically saying, watching the general public try to figure out why certain streams don't match the ticket sales is funny. Basically, you know, pokey fun at the fact that they want to say, his streaming numbers are fake but not his real live performances because obviously you can't fake butts and seats you know people coming out making plans to come out to see your performance you know

so anyways yeah that was the whole back and forth with billboard and lumen it basically saying they took away 4,000 of his real sales 10,000 of overall sales I think that was talking about like digital uh so basically like yeah so 4 000 that's like copies as far as like people buying and downloading and then total 10 000 so you know 6 000 as far as a cumulative live a cumulative digital sales equalling um total purchases as major labels was saying that he was faking his streams and sales due to a monopoly monopolisic merch bundles and they said he basically said in parentheses only major labels are allowed to do merch bundles because the only approved vendor is a major label vendor and he said these numbers

and charts are made up the impact however is not shout out to the fans which is definitely potent to a pinpoint because russ is one of those type of artists which i've been intrigued by just simply off of the fact that what he says is man frustration but also a lot of work put in behind the scenes to come up with this outcome so he went on to say i don't think y'all realize how nut this is billboard charts are inflated by fake data which is being verified by only one company luminate both billboard and luminate are owned by the same company anyways i'm sit back and watch Milan expose the whole

expanse. So basically Milan is like some type of industry insider, I believe. And then Milan said the current music charts are inflated by fake data and that data is being verified by one company only. That same

company that verifies the data is owned by the same company that owns the charts. It's a rig game. Which, honestly, Covering the music industry, I consistently say if you're an independent artist, I'm not saying you can never make it because obviously there's ways to get organic attraction through social media and DSP's exposure. But as far as making the charts, as far as garnering the masses and gaining the masses on a level of a major label artist is never going to happen. you would need a distribution deal a licensing deal to even come close to any major label artists or

artists who's on a distribution deal you just can't be a hundred percent independent and compete with those artists now if you're okay with just having a you know a livable wage for making music then that's one thing but if you want to compete with the big dogs in the industry you unfortunately have to sign to the major labels because they're They are the ones that opens those imaginary doors when it comes to people talking about the Illuminati. It's not the Illuminati. It's just people in certain positions to open the door for you. But it's not like, oh, where the Illuminati?

No, like Steve Stout, Lucian Grange. I mean, there's people you can look up. It's not just some mysterious people. You know what I'm saying? But anyways. So, yeah, at the end of day, that's why I really enjoy. just Russ's whole career because he actually walks where he talks and he's not one that just talks about woe is me he puts in the work and i think he's like an underground

drake he's like if drake completely went independent and just put out music for his fan base to consume and just live with the results because rus could easily sign to a major label but he continues to stay independent stay putting in the work to grind i mean i think one of the reasons why this tour is so short right here because you have one two three four five six seven eight nine ten you have ten dates i think that's short compared to most major label artists and it's simply because i don't think he's fighting the battle of return on investment i think he's basically going on tour for the love of the sport and the love of getting in front of his fans and showing them appreciation for showing up time and time again so that being said that's basically it you know a new track by russ and melly

titled what's this titled again best friend and you know this is produced by boy wonder so you already know the production is crazy um once again black and melly is going on tour starting may 31st if you was wanting to get your tickets and the biggest thing you need to know is that the tour will be ending June 28th in Brooklyn. And what else? Fans are speculating that dates will be added, but obviously only the future would tell. So yeah.

So with that being said, click my link to my bio. Let me know one of my social medias. What do you think about Russ as a musician, as a person as just an overall gym dropper in the music industry and pulling back the veil as far as the smoke and mirrors that goes on? regarding the music industry. And what is your favorite track from Russ?