Music / Rick Ross

"Every day, I'm hustlin'."

William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), better known by his stage name Rick Ross, Teflon Don or Ricky Rozay, is an American rapper and former prison guard. In 2009 he founded the Maybach Music Group imprint, which is currently distributed by Atlantic Records.

Discography:

• Port of Miami (2006)
• Trilla (2008)
• Deeper Than Rap (2009)
• Teflon Don (2010)
• God Forgives, I Don't (2012)
• MasterMind (2014)
• Hood Billionaire (2014)
• Black Market (2015)
• Rather You Than Me (2017)
• Port of Miami 2 (2019)
• Richer Than I've Ever Been (2021)

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"Deeper Than Tropes":

• Arch-Enemy: 50 Cent. To this day the two constantly try to bring the other down.
• Arc Words:
  • Maybach Music, the name of the record label he founded is used as a drop in almost all his songs, as well as many he features in.
    • When he doesn't say it, it's often for dramatic effect, so to hold the tense atmosphere in The Game's "Ali Bomaye", or to let the elaborate instrumentation flow in Kanye West's "Devil in a New Dress" and his own "Free Mason".
  • Also “the biggest boss” and any other variation of the word “boss”.
• Benevolent Boss: Portrays himself as one, and is consistent with real life as well. This makes him stand out in a genre where money and contract issues are very commonplace.
• Boastful Rap: A lot of his songs. Notable ones being "Hold Me Back", "Aston Martin Music", "I'm Not A Star", "B.M.F." and "Hustlin'"
• Broken Pedestal: Discussed in "Idols Become Rivals", in which Rick Ross goes off on his former friend, hip-hop mogul Bryan "Birdman" Williams, after Birdman's Bad Boss tendencies became public.
• Catchphrase: "I'm not a Star."
• Celebrity Song: "MC Hammer"
• Cluster F-Bomb: As expected from a rapper.
  • "Who the fuck you think you're fuckin' with? I'm the fuckin' boss!"
• Freestyle Version: The 2012 mixtape The Black Bah Mitzvah which was entirely composed of freestyles over popular songs at the time - although after Ross had done his freestyle verse, he let every song play out as it originally was, causing lots of Epic Rapping.
  • Frequently releases these onto his YouTube channel over whatever is popular at the time.
• Genre Roulette: In a hip-hop sense, his albums tend to switch from hardcore trap music to elaborate orchestral beats, to synth-driven beats of various degrees of elaborateness. Example in point, "Maybach Music IV" and "Hold Me Back" were on the same album, God Forgives, I Don't.
• Intercourse with You: "Diced Pineapples", "Free Spirit" with Drake.
• Large Ham: One of the largest in mainstream rap, which is quite a feat.
• The Mentor:
  • He is one to Meek Mill, Wale and Stalley. The closest thing he has to a mentor is probably Jay-Z.
  • He's also a sort-of mentor to Drake.
• N-Word Privileges
• Only in Miami: Grew up there (although born in Mississippi) and references it frequently.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot
• The Something Song: More like "Something Music":
  • "Mafia Music"
  • "Maybach Music"
  • "Aston Martin Music"
    • Not to mention that there have been six "Maybach Music" songs and three "Mafia Music" songs.
    • Drake also spun off "Aston Martin Music" into "Paris Morton Music" and "Paris Morton Music 2".
• Soprano and Gravel: Whenever he teams up with Drake, he is the gravel to Drake's soprano.
• Technician Versus Performer: He's gotten better, but most people would agree his persona is much stronger than his rapping skills, on purpose.
• Trap Music: One of the most popular examples of this genre, although he does as much work outside of it as he does in it.
• True Companions: With MMG. In spite of getting into the occasional scuffle, they have shown to stick together in the end time and time again (most likely due to Rick Ross' Benevolent Boss status).
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Frequently. However, this is Fan Disservice. Less so now due to having lost a lot of weight in recent years.
• Wolverine Publicity: Has featured with Lil Wayne, T-Pain, Nicki Minaj, DJ Khaled (who gave him his biggest hit with "I'm On One"), Drake, T.I., Chris Brown, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Ludacris, Ed Sheeran, T-Pain, Trey Songz, Busta Rhymes, Wiz Khalifa and Kanye West, amongst many others.

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