How Rick Ross destroyed his own career and ruined his reputation
Rick Ross is an extremely successful rapper with billions of streams on his music, numerous platinum-selling songs, and a tonne of chart-topping singles and albums. However, despite being loved by so many in the industry, many fans seem to hate him for a variety of reasons.
Whether it be his extremely controversial lyrics or his very sketchy background, a lot of people do not like Rick Ross, and this raises the question of why, despite all of his relationships and success in the music industry, fans hate him so much nowadays.
Rick Ross has built his career in the music industry for nearly 20 years. In this time, he’s been able to rack up a tonne of accolades that many artists dream of. Of course, Rick Ross has a lot of accomplishments. He has recorded platinum albums, made his own line of alcohol, and collaborated with some of the biggest names in hip-hop, and that’s to say the least.
However, like many prominent artists in the industry, Rick Ross has run into controversy; in his case, he’s been involved in quite a lot of it. Over the years, he has been slightly deceptive with his image, portraying himself as a gangster while keeping his head down. Not actually living the life he spoke about.
But with some of his lyrics, you may think he did a lot of bad things he was influenced by, like in the song ‘I’m So Hood’ where he says, “Snitchin’ ain’t goin’ cut no time / I’ll murder one of you fuck niggas / Rob you for your last / Then off come the mask.” But Ross was working at a car wash during this period.
After washing cars, Rick Ross had a stint as a potential college football player that landed him a scholarship to Albany State University. Furthermore, he was going to major in criminal justice. His chosen subject, juxtaposed with the lifestyle he speaks about in his music, has often made people feel like Ross lacks authenticity, and his duplicity has made many in hip-hop move away from him. Still, his job choice after dropping out of college gained the most attention in the world of hip-hop. He then went to work at a South Florida prison as a correctional officer, where he worked for 18 months and had to undergo 540 hours of training.
Furthermore, he started working in construction, and because of the persona he wanted to adopt in his rap career, his jobs became a secret about his past. He began releasing music in the 2000s and hit the jackpot with his album Port Of Miami in 2006. Despite his past on the song ‘Hustlin’ he rapped about topics at the time people believed rhyming, “I cut em wide / I cut ’em long / I cut ’em fat / I keep ’em coming back / I’m into distribution like Atlantic / I know Pablo, Noriega / The real Noriega – he owe me hundred of favours.”
Initially, his pre-fame life wasn’t a problem, but DJ Vlad eventually revealed that Ross was once a correctional officer. After reporting on it, Rick Ross launched an attack on the DJ that resulted in the rapper getting sued for $4million. Ross allegedly had DJ Vlad assaulted, which left the online personality needing stitches on his face, three facial fractures, a cornea abrasion and nerve damage.
Regardless, by 2010, he was popular but drowning in lawsuits. One controversial case related to his fourth album, Teflon Don. The album’s name was inspired by the mob boss John Gotti and his nickname, Teflon Da Don, and the kingpin’s grandson sued Ross for copyright infringement. That lawsuit came to an end in 2012.
That said, only a year later, on Rocko’s single ‘U.O.E.N.O’, Ross’ verse got banned from US radio stations due to its disturbing rhyme where he stated that, once on a date with a woman, he put “Molly [ecstasy] all in her champagne.” The Miami act’s verse was labelled as misogynistic and predatory as Ross rapped, “Put molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it / I took her home, and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it!” The rhyme sequence from Ross alluded to a date rape scenario in which he put ecstasy in a female’s drink and proceeded to have sex with her.
The amalgamation of people perceiving Ross as fake alongside his numerous legal problems has made his position as a top-tier emcee untenable, and due to his mini-feuds with 50 Cent, he is regularly the butt of jokes.