Rick Ross — creative pseudonym of an American rap artist from Florida. The real name of the musician is William Leonard Roberts II.
Rick Ross is the founder and head of the music label Maybach Music. The main direction is the recording, release and promotion of rap, trap and R&B music.
Childhood and the beginning of the musical formation of William Leonard Roberts II
William was born on January 28, 1976 in the small town of Carol City (Florida). At school, he showed himself excellently as a football player, so for a long time he was part of the school team. He received an increased scholarship, thanks to which he entered and studied at one of the local universities.
In order to enter a higher educational institution, he had to move to the state of Georgia. Here the young man successfully studied and here he began to thoroughly get involved in rap.
William decided not just to listen and study hip-hop culture, but to take his own first steps in it.
Creative tandems
With four friends from his hometown, he created the Carol City Cartel ("Carol City Cartel"). The team did not show itself very seriously at first. For the most part they tried to record a few demos. The group never released a single successful disc and remained virtually unknown.
At the same young age, Rick Ross tried to earn money by working as a prison guard. This fact was later revealed to the public by famous rapper 50 Cent during their public feud.
Nevertheless, along with his group, Ross continued to master rap music. By 2006, he was already ready to release his first solo album.
Rick Ross: musical recognition
Port Of Miami - this is the name of the musician's first disc. It came out in late summer 2006. The album was not released by the musician's own efforts. By this point, he was already signed to Bad Boy Records. The album was released by a label with Def Jam Recording.
These are two labels widely known to fans of rap music. At that time, they had been regularly creating a lot of quality rap for over 15 years. Therefore, any MC who released albums on these labels for the first time, a priori, deserved attention from the public.
But the album Port of Miami did not just deserve attention. Success awaited him. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number one. Nearly 1 copies were sold in the first seven days. The main hit of the album was the single Hustlin. 200-2006 were the "age of ringtones".
"Hustlin" was one of the most downloaded ringtones. The album hasn't been released yet. The single has already sold over 1 million in the US (not counting pirated downloads). The song stormed the charts in the US and Europe. After this single, Ross was recognized by the general public around the world.
Trilla's second album
The musician's second album Trilla was also successful. It was released two years after the first and debuted at the top of the Billboard 200. Two lead singles were released: Speedin (with R. Kelly) and The Boss with T-Pain.
The first came out unnoticed, while the second release noisily "walked" on the charts and charts in the United States. The album received a "gold" sales certificate. Sold more than 600 thousand copies of the album on physical and digital media in a few months. And in the first week - almost 200 thousand.
Rick Ross on the wave of success
A year later, Rick Ross released his third solo release. Deeper Than Rap also showed great sales results (160 copies in the first seven days) and, similarly to the first release, peaked at number 1 on the Billboard 200.
Rick Ross is one of the few rap artists who managed to "keep the bar" over the course of four albums.
The next release of God Forgives, I Don't was also warmly received by the public and critics. It outperformed previous albums and sold over 215 copies in its first week.
Total sales reached half a million. It was the only Ross release to receive a Grammy nomination. However, he failed to take the award for "Best Rap Album".
In mid-2019, Ross released the track Big Tym, which was received very warmly by the public. Now he is recording new music and developing his label.
Controversies and scandals of Rick Ross
One of Ross' constant promo tools was beefs (public skirmishes with other rappers). Quarrels occurred regularly, but the most vocal of them was a feud with 50 Cent. They even exchanged disses (offensive songs directed at each other).
From Rick Ross it was Purple Lamborghini, and from 50 Cent it was Officer Ricky. It was in the latter that 50 Cent made public the fact that Ross worked as a prison guard. After that, William "buried" 50 Cent in one of his video clips.
The enmity between rappers has weakened, but has not stopped to this day. There is also a case of a fight with Young Jeezy, initiated by Ross himself.
