As the self-proclaimed “most human” in the game right now, LaRussell isn’t your typical Rap artist. He wears hats with dog ears, launched a concert residency in his own backyard, and eschews jewellery and excess, more familiar trappings of the modern day rapper.

Born and raised in the Bay Area, LaRussell used social media better than most to build his following and fanbase and gained initial notoriety with his album, ‘The Field Effect.’ Since then, LaRussell has continued to release music consistently and challenged the music business’s status quo, encouraging fans to “pay what they want” to purchase his music.

The Hip Hop Museum caught up with LaRussell to discuss his ‘Backyard Residency’ series, what the next 50 years of Hip Hop might look like, and why one of the fans’ most requested verses was initially an afterthought to him.

Adam Aziz: Where did the idea for your ‘Backyard Residency’ concert series spawn from?

LaRussell: Man, it was really just from the process of us being told no and not having our own infrastructure, and it urged me to create my own. I was working with another venue, and there was a lot of negativity around what I was trying to build, doing offer-based shows and building something new. There’s just a fear that comes with doing something new when you’re working with the older generation and what they’re used to. It was like, man, I’d rather do my own thing. And I didn’t have a venue of my own. So it was like, I do have a backyard. Let’s turn that into something. When I was growing up, we always had parties in the backyard.

AA: I saw a recent interview where you talked about how much you used to post on social media and how hard you’ve grinded and worked to build your fanbase and career. Do upstart Rap artists really understand the work that goes into this? Can you speak a bit about how hard you’ve worked?

LR: The previous generation understood better than the new generation understands because the new generation has a different set of crutches. The older generation, you had to go Rap. Like you had to go Rap for people, you had to go Rap on a corner. You had to do the awards shows, there was no social media. So the only way people would see you is if you out there rapping. There was no other way, you know? It’s like, you’ll get on the radio, but even then, you have to go Rap. So I think that sense of work ethic used to exist, but now it has just kind of changed because people can make it from home. You could be successful and famous and never leave your crib. You can never really be present in the game, and you could go viral and succeed. It’s just a different game.

AA: I want to ask you about my favorite verse from you, which is on DJ Drama’s “We Made It.” 

LR: Wow, so many people come to me and tell me that’s their favorite verse. I’ll do shows and people will say “do We Made It.” And I’m always like, I did that song in five minutes, sent it and never listened to it again. 

AA: Wow, I find the song so powerful. One line I want to ask you about is when you said, “I see through the smoke, see big chains on little men, and I can see the diamonds trying to hide the lack of dental plans.” Can you expand on the meaning behind those bars in the context of Hip Hop?

LR: It came from being in the game and looking around. You know, I’m a n*gga who came in wearing Crocs and hoodies and gym shorts. And I have the least amount of rapper appeal that you can imagine. You know, I wear hats with dog ears. I have traditionally not been what Hip Hop has been for so long. Do you feel me? And when you look around at our peers, there’s a similar appeal. And look, when you look at the people who made it in the past three to five years, it’s all the same. It’s the same look; you know, it’s the big chains, flashy cars, and dentures. It’s so far from me, and sometimes that’ll make you feel as an artist like you’re lacking but I realize I’m not the one lacking, I’m the one that sticks out.

AA: One thing I’ve noticed a lot looking through your socials is that in most of your videos and content, you’re smiling and having a good time, which isn’t the most common thing when it comes to Rap artists.

LR: It’s funny; I had my first Breakfast Club interview in New York and after we were doing media, the cameraman was taking pictures, and I was smiling. He said, “No, let me do one with you not smiling. I was like, no, you feel me like no, what the fuck, but he didn’t understand what he was doing was wrong, and he didn’t think it was malicious or anything. That’s just what he was conditioned to do, but to have a white man tell you not to smile and take a picture is like the craziest shit ever to me. 

AA: Given that you aren’t the typical rapper persona, why do you think you’ve been able to grow such a huge fanbase and following?

LR: I think I’ve been able to get this far independently as myself because more people can relate to me than they can relate to a n*gga with a huge chain and a Lamborghini and a huge mansion, none of us live that life. I literally have the mass of the world. If you put 10 million people in a room, and you say, which one of these people do you relate to most? And, you know, the average person is going to relate to me more because I’m, I’m common, you know, I do all the regular shit, I don’t do anything, you never see anything on my page that feels impossible, even when I’m doing incredible things, you feel like you can do it because you see someone common doing it.

AA: We recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop. Where do you think Hip Hop will go in the next 50 years?

LR: It all depends on if we have another revolution. If the people currently in control of Hip Hop remain in control of Hip Hop, then it will go where it’s headed. Where we all see it’s headed. We all witnessed Playboi Cartis and Ken Carsons. What the fuck is that? I love to accept new art, but it’s not hip hop. It’s something else, and we’ve witnessed Hip Hop become a detriment to our community. It became negative and polluted. 

When I go outside and see the kids outside and what they’re listening to, who they’re replicating, and who they’re trying to be, it’s not a positive experience. It’s completely different than when you had an Andre 3000, Kanye West or Common born into somebody. Now you have a Future born into somebody, and it’s a different energy. I go to Hip Hop concerts, and none of them are like the ones I create. You know, you go into some of these Hip Hop shows, and it’s a 30, 40-year-old black man talking about killing his own people, and the crowd is full of white kids and Asian kids and Mexican kids. I’m talking about life and healing at my shows and just the world and family, and you look in the crowd and see a blended demographic of just humans and what humanity represents. We’re in a different direction in terms of the mainstream and what’s being pushed.

And that’s because we’re not in control of Hip Hop. We don’t own Hip Hop. A lot of Hip Hop artists don’t own their masters, don’t own their records, don’t own the ability to say what their shit is pushed to. There’s no reason I should go to a Future show and see the crowd full of white kids and, Asian kids and Mexican kids. This crowd should reflect him and look like him. They’re all 17, 16, 18. There’s no one 40 in the crowd.

AA: Being from the Bay Area, who are some artists that pushed you on your path to creating your business and the fanbase around you?

LR: E-40, Too $hort, Master P. They’re really like the innovators of independence for me. 

AA: To close, is there anything you want people to know about LaRussell that they might not already know?

LR: I am the most human in the game right now that you’ll find on the artist level. Not too many move with the freedom and the liberation that I have, how I show up in the world, and how I show up for my crowd and my craft. I don’t have a hit song or platinum record or gold record or any of that shit, but everyone knows who I am. And I don’t have a major deal. I’ve never been pushed through the major system, but the same artists that’s major right now, you know them as much as you know LaRussell.

Read more interviews on the Hip Hop Museum!