Russ and Bugus launch DIEMON Record label

Independent rappers Russ and Bugus finally launched their own record label, DIEMON, after more than ten years of hard work.

An acronym for “Do It Everyday Music or Nothing,”DIEMON began in Atlanta as a creative collective in 2010. In 2017, Russ signed with Columbia Records to make DIEMON an imprint. However, Russ ended his Columbia deal in 2020 and became an independent artist. His 2021 album was released. “Chomp 2”Alles by himself. His single was his most recent. “Handsomer” broke through the top 40 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Now, the multi-hyphenate wants to help other artists by providing them with the resources of a major label — without all of the other binding stipulations.

“Everyone owns their masters; everyone owns their publishing. We don’t eat on your merch or your tours, and everything’s a profit split deal,”Russ says Variety of DIEMON’s philosophy. “We’re not looking to invest in an artist just to change their music. If we like an artist enough to sign them, it’s because we like what they’re doing. It’s just a super artist-friendly situation, where we’re here to provide resources and mentorship to artists that we believe in.”

Bugus, DIEMON’s co-founder and Russ’ best friend since eighth grade, says the label is looking to sign passionate, “hungry”Artists of all genres.

“We don’t want to have to chase you around and beg you to come to the studio. We want the kind of artist that we need to pull out of the studio and be like, ‘All right bro, you’ve done five songs tonight, take a break,’”Bugus: “There’s a lot of rappers who have a label but it’s all rap, or R&B artists have a label and it’s all R&B. We want to be more like the big labels in that sense, where they have Garth Brooks and Lil Wayne and Wizkid from Africa.”

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The DIEMON logo is a symbol of the importance of DIEMON. ‘Everyday Music’The acronym.
Courtesy FYI Brand Group

DIEMON, a Vallejo, Calif. hip hop artist has signed its first signee LaRussellRuss said that he was reminded a lot by his mentor, Corey.

“If you look at what he’s doing with his music, he’s putting out a bunch of content all the time — dropping albums here, dropping songs there. With him I was like, ‘Man, do whatever you wanna do. Whenever you need me, hit me,’”Russ comments on LaRussell. “Because I know if that’s your vision and you wanna do all this content and do what you wanna do before you tap into the resources — I don’t care, rock out. That’s the same thing that I did, you know? But I know that wouldn’t be possible if he was signed to a major label, because they would be like, ‘Okay first of all, everything you’re putting out has to be ours. Second of all, you can’t be putting out this much stuff, we gotta have a plan.’”

Bugus finds a laid-back approach for deadlines because he has first-hand experience being an artist. “We realize that you can go a whole month and not have any inspiration or creative juices. So you get that benefit just as people who played in the field ourselves, who currently play in the field,”He says. “We understand what it is to be an artist, and we’re not just looking at our bottom line at the end of the quarter.”

DIEMON’s financial transparency will be a major advantage, thanks to Vydia, the distribution platform. Through tech that has been supplied to the label, artists can log onto DIEMON’s distribution website and keep track of all of their earnings in real time.

“It’s super transparent, like you see what we see. It’s one thing to say, ‘Yeah, we’re an artist-friendly label and it’s still going to feel like you’re independent.’ It’s a whole other thing to be like, ‘No, for real, you can log in and see what’s going on,’”Russ said. “It’s important to keep that artist-friendly relationship, and Vydia’s just been really great about being the resource that you need when you need them, but other than that letting you do your thing.”

Russ and Bugus believe that DIEMON will bring about a shift in the mentality of the music industry. Artists will realize that they have the power.

“I hope that artists recognize that they’re the nucleus. They have more power than they realize and there’s alternative ways to win, you don’t have to go the major label way. You don’t have to give up your masters and do all of these really exploitative things,”Russ said. “That’s what I’m doing with my career, that’s what Bugus is doing with his career, but then as a label we’re also just going to show that with artists that we believe in. I can’t wait, and I know Bugus can’t wait either, until we’re three or four artists down the line of success stories of DIEMON artists.”

Bugus also adds “Labels don’t make albums platinum, customers do. It’s the fans who literally are in charge and they’re the ones who run everything, so we just want to help artists leave that mindset of all the power is in the label’s hands, when it really is in your audience’s hands. An artist is a lemon and a label is a lemonade stand. Lemons still have value without a lemonade stand, but a lemonade stand has no value without lemons. Whether or not you have a label, you’re still a lemon. You have value regardless, but a lemonade stand with no lemons is out of business.”

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