Union sees many students coming in and out of school. We can agree that most are great, but only a few stand out. I can safely say that Alex Russell, a senior communications major, stands out among the crowd. From free-style rapping to sporadic comedic moments, Russell has it all. To capture his true aura, I am keeping the conversation exactly as it is.
*Russell leans into the mic*
Russell: “Oh, hello. This is Alex Russell, and we have Andrew Waddey interviewing me today.”
Waddey: “Thank you for the introduction. Let’s start off with how the last semester is treating you so far.”
*Russell lets out a slight chuckle*
Russell: “You know, I have to be honest. It’s been good. A lot of that stress comes with the last semester of senior year, whether that that’s finding a job or figuring out where you’re going to live after college. The Lord really revealed, even though I’m very stressed throughout the semester, that I can find comfort in His timing.”
Waddey: “I understand. I would also like to talk about some of the things you’ve done in your time here.”
Russell: “Yeah, yeah, fo sho. So achievement wise, I think really something that I kind of take value from is developing into my personality and learning how to be myself, which sounds a little cliché, but it’s honestly true.”
Waddey: “What was it that contributed to that?”
Russell: “Ultimately I feel like it’s the people I’ve been in contact with. There is value in each and every person no matter their past, and that’s something I had to learn about myself, that I had to accept my value. I only allude to that because it was everything leading up to through what I’ve done, like the Student Activities Council. I could find areas in there where I could develop my personality along with my talent.”
Waddey: “Don’t you also have a reputation in rapping?”
Russell: “Oh no.”
*We both laugh*
Waddey: “You and I haven’t had too many conversations, but when people mention you they mention your raps on Instagram.”
Russell: “Oh I’m so sorry.”
*We both laugh again*
Russell: “Kind of the background to that is um… late high school I listened to Christian rap artists, and then from there I went to more secular artists. Kind of went back and forth based on what I liked to hear. The first thing I did was practice learning from the artist Andy Mineo. It was one of his first albums that had a song called “Michael Jackson.”
Waddey: “I’ve never heard of that song.”
Russell: “Well there’s this really fast part where he goes ‘I go by M-I-N-E-O, but it really don’t matter, bury me with no tombstone…’ and it picks up. I’ll play it for you after we’re done. Anyways, long story short, I just found that really fun, and I wanted to memorize it specifically to get to that fast part. I found that to be very exciting.”
Waddey: “Yeah I actually got to see him in concert.”
Russell: “Oh nice! The rapping started with other songs and spaces where I thought I could fill in when there was no other person singing or rapping. I would fill in Andy Mineo lyrics to other songs and eventually just instrumentals.”
Waddey: “That’s really cool.”
Russell: “And then eventually that just evolved into ‘how can I make this my own?’ and it really just became a creative exercise where I could practice thinking on my feet. It’s something that I just really enjoyed doing in the car… in private obviously.”
Waddey: “And it eventually just picked up here?”
Russell: “Yeah, I haven’t done many projects publicly, and I don’t have too many recorded sessions even privately, but I do have a couple. But a lot of it really is something that I do in my free time in the car.”
Waddey: “Do you do a lot of free-styling?”
Russell: “Oh that’s all I do. So before V-Show, we had a portion of our show that we got to rap, and I wrote down something to the beat to memorize and perform. I didn’t give myself enough time really, but I kept on trying to memorize it but I couldn’t. At one point I tried for two hours and I couldn’t, so I was like ‘well this sucks’ because I really wanted to perform it. I decided to just freestyle the middle section because I could get down the first part and I knew where it was going to end. It didn’t go perfect, but I still had a lot of fun. I don’t have any plans for a rap career or even anything just music related, but just to recognize that there is some talent that is a gift from the Lord and to use that ability not just to rap but to think on my feet.
Waddey: “Has it been a while since you’ve put anything out?”
Russell: “Yes, yeah it has. I haven’t released or worked on anything other than in the car.”
To finish our interview, Russell was so gracious enough to give a sample free-style as a closure to our short time together.
“Uh.. Yo/Ay, I just got interviewed today/By Andrew Waddey, man it was so amaz-ing/I don’t think I could say it any eloquent way/But the way he asked me questions I thought ‘Man, imagine what a world we live in/where all the children/think we going to Heaven’/But all I know is that there’s a higher bein’/That watches over when we go to sleepin’/Oh shoot/Hold up/I’m about to come up to the corner and stroll up/you lookin’ really cool/I’m gonna call you fruit rollup/cause every time you talk to me I wanna say… ‘shut up’/But not really, because I like the way you talk/You got a funny way/The way that you go ‘squak!’/I like the way you move girl/You got that body bangin’/Oh shoot lady let me see you in the a.m./I’m tryin’ to take away the pain/This is like the nomacain/I just wanna throw down… nomacain is not a word by the way.”
Graphic Courtesy of Campbell Padgett
