There's a joy in being with an artist right from the beginning, following their journey as they climb through the necessary levels to reach a point where they can have sustained success - as opposed to skipping levels and being a one-hit wonder. That wasn't quite the case for my journey with Russ though as I copped his new album 'There's Really A Wolf' and giving this album plenty of air-time coincided with a journey back to how Russ got to this point.

Jump on Youtube and you'll find a variety of interviews that have Russ outlining how he's built a fanbase with consistent delivery of music, whether that was through releasing 11 albums or dropping a song every week. Russ has been here, he's been making music and in a sign of the times, artists these days need to rely on the quality of their fans and not exactly the quantity of fans. By the time he dropped TRAW, Russ had semi-blown up but apart from a few singles ('What They Want' and 'Losin Control') Russ certainly wasn't a mainstream success. He'd put solid foundations down though and those foundations are deeply rooted in his consistency.

Without having heard much of Russ' music prior to this album, I was obviously intrigued by the buzz and went into my listening experience with an open mind. Russ is as talented as anyone else in music based purely off of what he can do; he sings melodies, raps fairly slick bars and produces his own music. This is a consistent theme throughout the album as Russ makes the listener well aware of what Russ puts into the music, sure you can hear all the elements of Russ' skills (raps, melodies, beats) but Russ reminds you of this in his lyrics.

That could be kinda annoying, but this offers a nice example of what I enjoyed about TRAW. In terms of content, Russ doesn't venture outside a core group of ideas (girls, his all-round ability, doing this on his own, inspiration/motivation) and the clarity of this is refreshing, especially as Russ weaves a limited selection of ideas into his music in many different ways. You could make an argument against Russ saying the same thing multiple times, yet the way he delivers the same message shows his ability and instead of drifting off into lanes that aren't for him, Russ sticks to his own experience and delivers that in an entertaining fashion.

You'll get your fix of straight up raps and Russ ensures that the listener is left with no doubt regarding Russ' ability as an rapper. You might not get Joey Bada$$ 'double entendre monster' level bars or Kendrick Lamar's stories, there's certainly enough in Russ' bars to have you finding new pockets on each song where Russ impresses with a simple yet effective bar. Chuck in his ability to deliver any melody required for that particular song and I found myself rapping the bars, then closing my eyes an belting out a love tune moments later.

I'd suggest that you acquaint yourself with your feelings because Russ gets vulnerable and has no hesitation in singing about previous relationships and what not. There's a poetic nature to how Russ describes emotions which is centred mainly around honesty, moving away from simply outlining his love or disdain for a woman and towards how or why a relationship broke down for example. 'Back To You', 'Scared' and 'Don't Lie' aren't just love songs, their little stories that explore every aspect of love.

There was an immediate inspirational vibe that seeped through from this album, shaping how I came to view it and I found it awfully similar to that of Nipsey Hussle. When listening to Nipsey Hussle, you're taken into the mind of a businessman who puts that mind-frame directly into their music and I've learned a lot simply from listening to Nipsey's music. Russ offers something similar in that while he may not be a household name, he's built his brand and fanbase up from the ground by himself, a message that is delivered with clarity and consistently.

That doesn't take away from the music though. There's plenty of gems to keep you going on your own journey in TRAW and the skill is in how Russ packages it all together in a unique and entertaining listen. Some songs grabbed me more than others, although that's because some songs got me feeling a type of way and any artist who can push those emotional buttons tends to be destined for big tings