How long was Rick Ross a correctional officer for?
As Rick Ross was building his public persona during the early stages of his career, revelations about his past emerged and almost derailed everything. The rapper, who was projecting himself as a bit of gangsta, had actually once been a correctional officer — and now the world knew it.
His past came to light in 2007, when a photo of him wearing a police guard uniform began to spread online. This was damaging for a rapper whose persona relied on being perceived as a criminal, so he denied that he’d ever worked for law enforcement.
His denials eventually became difficult to sustain. An investigation by TheSmokingGun.com found evidence proving that he had been a correctional officer in Florida for a year and a half, from December 1995 to June ’97. He couldn’t keep denying it anymore, so he came clean.
Ross had started beefing with 50 Cent by this time, so 50, naturally, was delighted by the revelations. It looked like Ross’ public image would be in tatters forever.
But, as things turned out, Ross’ rap career proved more resilient than might have been expected when the photos of his correctional officer past first emerged. He managed to shake off the negativity and his rap career flourished. His image, somehow, remained intact.
Years later, in 2022, Ross appeared on the The Full Send podcast and reflected on his time as a correctional officer. He was open about the fact that he had, indeed, taken the job as a 20-year-old, but he insisted that he hadn’t progressed very far within that line of work.
“I didn’t really get to make it to the prison,” he claimed. “You have to go through training and all that and I didn’t last long. I may have last four months before they said I… You know, I was a little tardy.”
Four months is certainly less than the 18-month stint that TheSmokingGun.com reported, but, either way, Ross admits that he did the job for at least a short while. Explaining why he did it, he told The Full Send, “One of my big homies had just got in trouble and a lot of things were going on. He just suggested it.”
Ross didn’t like the work, apparently, because of the low pay and the physical exertions that it demanded of him. “Anything you gotta do and you fucking running and jogging and all of that shit,” he said. “Man, I missed a few days.”