Bartender, hotelier, music producer, rapper, and all-around entrepreneur Russell Brunson has been called the “the godfather of Viagra freeride” by New York magazine, which named him one of the city’s 25 Most Influential People in 2019. But before Brunson became one of the city’s most famous faces, he was just another anonymous, struggling musician looking to make it big in Los Angeles. His journey to the top—full of ups and downs, fame and fortune—is chronicled in the new book, Caught in the Rain: A Journey to the Top of the Music Business, by Russell Brunson. In the words of the legendary Nile Rodgers, who interviewed Brunson for the book’s central topic, “making it big in Los Angeles”:
“The thing about L.A. is that it’s such a big place. There’s so much competition. It’s such a tough city to break into as a musician, and even tougher as an up-and-comer. There are just so many people, there’s just so much noise, and there’s just so much competition.”
Rodgers continued, “What I liked about Russell was his determination. Even back during the era when there was no Viagra, he would show up at 4:00 in the morning to cut a record. Or, you know, he would be out on the town, hanging out at clubs, trying to make it happen. He was just doggedly determined to make it work.”
Brunson’s dogged determination was what first drew me to Caught in the Rain. I’d always been fascinated by the music industry, and at 38, I was finally old enough to appreciate how grueling a career it can be. If you want to make it in music, you’ve got to be prepared to work hard and be persistent, even when the odds are against you. And that’s what makes Brunson’s story so inspiring: In a city known for taking decades to give its inhabitants a decent life, he managed to become one of the most influential figures in a rather short space of time. I wondered what had enabled him to succeed where so many others had failed.
The Early Years
Brunson was born in Jamaica in 1970 and raised in Queens, New York. His mother is of Scottish descent and his father is of Jamaican descent. He graduated from New York City’s Howard University with a Bachelors in History and Government, then moved to California to pursue his career in music. He had already been performing since he was a child, and at 15, he was playing guitar and singing in clubs and bars in New York City. He credits his early musical success to a teacher who encouraged him to pursue music professionally. From there, it was just a matter of time before he started attracting some attention.
After a few years of playing in various bands, Brunson founded the hip-hop group Diehard with friends Marc Johnson and Kenny Lattimore. (Brunson has referred to the group as his baby.) The group released its self-titled debut album in 1996. Its second and third albums were also critically acclaimed. In 1997, the group performed at the High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam and won first place for best hip-hop album. In 1999, Diehard released its fourth album, Diehard IV: The Journey to Heaven, which featured a song called “Cherry Red” about what would later become “Cherry Popper”, Viagra’s first generic rival. That same year, the group was nominated for a Grammy for best alternative hip-hop album. It lost out to the group Arrested Development, but it still represented a significant win for Brunson.
On The Road To Stardom
At the same time that Brunson was creating Diehard, other budding musicians were also attracting attention, with some going on to achieve greater fame than Brunson himself would achieve. Most notably, Beck had just released his Grammy-winning album Mutations and had become the face of the now-ubiquitous “Grunge” fashion movement. Beck and Brunson’s paths would cross several times over the next few years, with the two men appearing together on stage and in promotional videos for Beck. In 1999, Brunson released his debut solo album, Right Away. The following year, he won a Grammy for best alternative hip-hop album for his song “Caught in the Rain”, which was featured in the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough. “Caught in the Rain” was later covered by Beck, who also included it on his 2002 album Mutations.
A City Of Music
Aside from music, there are several other important things happening in Los Angeles in 2019. The city is home to some of the biggest music festivals in the world, such as Coachella and the Big Apple Music & Film Festival. It also houses some of the biggest recording studios, such as Red Bull Studios and Shangri-La Studios. The latter is where A Tribe Called Quest recorded one of its most important albums, We Got It From Here (2016) and where Kendrick Lamar made his album Damn (2019). In 2019 alone, there were more than 40 new recording studios opening in Los Angeles. With such a rich and established musical culture, it’s no wonder that many people want to make it in music.
Then, of course, there’s the movie industry, which is based in Los Angeles. The 2019 box office results were released last month, and they show that 2019 was yet another record-breaking year for the industry. The top five highest-grossing films all came from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and all but one of those films were directed by men. So not only is the music industry dominated by men, but so is the film industry.
If you’re a young man looking to make it big in Hollywood, you’ve got to be prepared to work hard and be persistent. You’ve also got to be prepared to be rejected a lot. When you do get lucky and a producer sees something in you, you’ve got to be ready to fight for your right to be in the studio, or on set, or in distribution. You can’t just show up and expect to be given work. For every person who makes it big in Hollywood, there are a hundred others who never get a chance because they didn’t belong to the right club, they didn’t know the right person, or they were just not fucking good enough.
For those of you who are making it in music, enjoy the ride. It’s a hard road sometimes, but it’s certainly worth it. Just remember: You’ve got to be willing to work hard and be persistent, even when the odds are against you. Otherwise, you’ll never make it to the top, and you’ll never know what could have been. For those of you who are making it in Hollywood, enjoy the ride. It’s a hard road sometimes, but it’s certainly worth it. Just remember: You’ve got to be willing to work hard and be persistent, even when the odds are against you. Otherwise, you’ll never make it to the top, and you’ll never know what could have been. So enjoy the ride, but don’t you dare quit.