Russ, who admittedly hasn’t listened to a Taylor Swift song “in like 10 years,” is speaking out amid what he sees as “brain-dead takes” on the album’s charts success.
As you’ve no doubt seen on social media in recent days, Swift has faced criticism from some in connection with the slew of physical format variants she’s rolled out for The Life of a Showgirl, her latest album. In Russ’s opinion, Swift’s ability to build a fanbase that’s “dedicated enough to actually purchase her music” should be admired, not criticized.
“I’ve just seen so many brain-dead takes on this album’s success that I gotta say something lmao,” Russ, who has a new track of his own arriving on Friday, said in a recent X update. “Billboard only counts 4 physical sales per customer and 1 digital sale per week fyi and her building a fanbase (off of music) dedicated enough to actually PURCHASE her music should be nothing but admired. Y’all’s favorite artists fake their STREAMS and do not actually SELL shit lmao and yet she’s being clowned for building a fanbase so dedicated that they BUY her music. Y’all are fucking idiots and have the game backwards.”
Russ went on to address the variety of variants of Swift’s new album that have been made available, arguing that “variants don’t create demand.” Instead, per Russ, such products “serve it.” Reiterating this point in another X post, the W!LD artist said Swift’s fans were buying multiple versions of the album “because they want to, not cuz they’re tricked.”
Elsewhere, Russ called out “stupidity” at large, and “stupid people” specifically, while further driving home his point.
“All the takes I’ve seen just seem like a resentment towards noticeable scale, meaning that when an artist gets so big that monetization becomes super visible some people get turned off cuz they interpret business transparency as greed,” he added. “But the fan still has agency…no one is forced to buy 7 versions of an album or 7 different hoodies.”
Recent projections, expectedly, find Swift’s Showgirl poised to officially land atop the Billboard 200 with the next charts update. While final numbers remain to be determined, current expectations are that the album’s first week sales tally may very well end up being the biggest ever.
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