"What They Want" is a song by American rapper
Russ. It was released on his
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...
page on August 19, 2015. Russ included this song on his 12th (and major-label debut) album ''
There's Really a Wolf''. The song was mixed, mastered, engineered, produced, written, and performed by Russ.
Background
The song is a response to labels and women who now want to approach him due to his success as a rapper. In the songs hook, Russ states "Dollar signs, yeah, I know it's what they want", as women now want him for his money, and labels want him for the money they can make off of his hard work.
Commercial performance
"What They Want" debuted at number 99 on the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, on the week of November 12, 2016. This became Russ' first song to appear on the chart. Three weeks later, the single reached its peak at number 83 on the week of December 3, 2016. The song also managed to chart at number 12 on the US
Rhythmic Airplay
The Rhythmic chart (also called Rhythmic Airplay, and previously named Rhythmic Songs, Rhythmic Top 40 and CHR/Rhythmic) is an airplay chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine.
The chart tracks and measures the airplay of songs played on ...
chart on the week of December 3, 2016. On July 26, 2021, the single was certified
four times platinum by the
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...
(RIAA) for combined sales and streaming units of over four million units in the United States.
Russ debuted the music video to "What They Want" through his
Vevo
Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, di ...
account on May 3, 2016.
As of June 2021, the song has over 320 million views on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.
Charts
Certifications
References
External links
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{{Russ
2015 singles
2015 songs
Russ (rapper) songs
Columbia Records singles