I’m going to start a new feature that I may or may not keep up. It’s career retrospectives, i’ll try to do one newer artist and one older artist. So we’ll start today with an artist that has been all over the news lately and one who had the best album of last year:
Deeper Than Rap: The Career of Rick Ross
While Miami had always had more of a bass-booty scene than a real hip hop scene, Slip-N-Slide Records had been a sole outlet for rappers while still incorporating some elements of the booty music that Luke and the 69 Boyz had made famous. Trick Daddy and Trina were making songs towards the booty side like “Shut Up,” “Nann,” “Pull Over.” But they also made more traditional hip hop songs like “In Da Wind,” “I’m A Thug,” and “B R Right.” In the mid 2000’s a more traditional hip hop scene was beginning in Miami with artists like Smilez & Southstar on the pop tip and Smitty on the more street side. Part of the success was ushered in by DJ Khaled, the area’s top rated radio dj. A lot of success was also ushered in by two of the industry’s hottest producers, Cool & Dre and Scott Storch, who were both working out of Miami, with Cool & Dre being from the city. A number of big names like Puff and Fat Joe were moving to Miami, which had become the East Coast’s equivalent of Las Vegas.
Slip-N-Slide hoped to cash in on the city’s newborn notoriety with their third major signing, Rick Ross, a more traditional hardcore rapper who loved to hype up the city’s history of drug trafficking. Ross had bounced around from Tony Draper’s famed Suave House Records previously, before winding up at Slip-N-Slide and eventually signing with Jay-Z, L.A. Reid and Def Jam.
Sporting a slow, fully enunciated flow that reminded some of Young Jeezy, Ross made his debut in 2006 with the single “Hustlin’.” In fact, his coke-filled subject manner was reflective of Jeezy’s style as well as the early days of his label’s president, Jay-Z. The hard-hitting song made some 
major noise and it even featured Jigga and Jeezy on the even-better remix. While the undergorund single demanded attention, the two follow ups made even more noise.
Based on a fly Cool & Dre production, “Blow” Rick Ross raps about the riches and life that go along with coke money. Cool & Dre knew how to perfect the usage of the synthesizer. They used it just enough to get the desired effect but not enough to annoy you or make the song sound over-done. This song was a perfect example, though similar in production to Ja Rule’s “New York.” The follow-up was perhaps even more exciting.
Over a well-utilized sample from the theme song of the movie Scarface, Ross laments on the lesser-known, severely less glamorous, South Beach-less part of Miami on the third single “Push It.” Ross hints at his lyrical ability here, for really the only time on the album;
“Port of Miami/Importin my candy/ain’t got nothin to lose/I’m just supporting my family/never traffic for fun/only traffic for funds/all i see is the struggle/its like I’m trapped in this slum….”
RRaawwwss released a fourth single for his duet with Mario Winans, “Get Away,” that didn’t make much noise but would be a signal of a single that would come later.
Ross then hit the guest-appearance circuit with a slew of guest 16’s that included the majority of DJ Khaled’s We The Best album (most notably the two hit singles “We Takin Over” and “I’m So Hood”), Birdman & Lil Wayne’s “Know What I’m Doin,” and Fat Joe’s “Make It Rain” remix, Ross went back to MIA to work on his heavily anticipated second album. While working on his record, he happened to be working in the same studio as two other artists working on heavily anticipated albums: Fat Joe, fast awork on Elephant In The Room, and Lil Wayne, heavily working on Tha Carter 3. The three formed somewhat of an alliance, as they had all been cool since being the three most featured artists on Khaled’s album. Joe and Ross actually even came out the same day. Ross first leaked a promo-only single for the aimed titletrack for his upcoming record, “Trilla.” The high-powered Cool & Dre track was similar to both “Blow” and a lot of the Cool & Dre material on Khaled’s album, but superior to both. Scratching the track from the album was a head-scratching move, but it made sense once the album’s momentum atually began.
Ross led off promotion of his second album at the end of 2007 with the 
lead-in, “Speedin,” which featured a newly re-freshed R. Kelly on the hook over a The Runners production that sounds exactly like the title of the song would have you suspect. At this point the production duo was on fire, having first caught fire on “I’m So Hood.” They came across as a slightly less pop verison of Cool & Dre, who had done the majority of the production on Ross’ debut. However, while this Ross song did catch momentum, it failed to really breakthrough – as Ross was still without a full-blown, nationwide hit single.
That would change with the second official single, “The Boss.” JR Rotem hooked up a glossy-yet-gutter production, T-Pain threw in a memorable hook, and Ross did the rest. Everything about this single was hip hop magic. T-Pain, who was all over the place at the time, probably dropped his best hook to date.
“Gotta fresh lineup/fresh outfit/bout to have the parking lot on smash/plus i gotta Chevy wit a fo’ fifty fo’ in the hood/that bitch get one twenty five on the dash,”
teddy pain croons. Just as the song was heating up at radio, another leaked song was keeping the streets on fire.
Def Jam promoted this album like it was the 1990’s, promoting a street single to pair with each commercial single. Essentially, every single had a b-side, were it to be commercially released. The b-side for “The Boss” was “Luxury Tax.”
An all-star cast of Lil Wayne, Young Jeezy, and Trick Daddy pull up to the line with Ross. Ross has pretty good chemistry with Wayne and Jeezy, but it’s Trick who steals the show with some subliminals thrown at another Ross-affiliate, Plies.
“Try to treat me like Shaq, and your Kobe/i ain’t sayin you owe me/but act like you know me.”
Another Miami production crew, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League (not to be confused with the Little Brother-affiliates), provided the beat. Everyone provided the ill rhymes, and Ross was officially on fire.
The second album, Trilla, came out and sold 200,000 units in its’ first week. It was, really, the only notable album for the first quarter of hip hop as hip hop was moving between Kanye/Jay-Z’s fourth quarter releases, and awaiting Lil Wayne’s album. But Ross was holding us down, and the label promoted “Here I Am” as the next single, while simultaneously pushing “Maybach Music” to the streets, effectively working as the b-side. While MM continued Ross’ streak and eventually became the name of his fledging record label, “Here I Am” was an overtly pop-tune aimed at women and top 40 stations. It was very in the queue of “Get Away,” but was released with a lot more momentum. But everything it was supposed to do, it did. “Here I Am” was an across the board smash, and Nelly and Avery Storm even caught a small buzz off the single as the featured artists, prompting Universal to release Nelly’s album – which eventually bricked like a Ben Wallace free throw. But the Hova-duet “Maybach Music” was the perfect compliment to “Here I Am,” feeding the streets with some more J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League heat while the pop tune was doing its’ thing. While the production team made its’ first waves all over Ross’ sophmore album, it was “Maybach Music” where they hit their peak. An incredibly melodic, lush beat over a simple drum pattern and some breaks provide the landscape for the two to trade brags over. “This Is The Life” was the final signle sent to radio, and was paired with “Billionaire” to the streets, but neither caught much momentum, as eight singles was overkill, even from an album as dope as this.
Ross was now on fire, but as Biggie once said, “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems.” Things began with a three-way rivalry with the two other big name rappers in Florida, Plies and Trick Daddy. Rumors floated around about all three of them rivaling the others. It all originated in a fight between Plies and Trick that Trick had referred to in his verse on “Luxury Tax.” But somehow Ross was rumored to be beefin with either both or each of them on his own. Tensions escalated when pictures of Ross in his past job as a C.O at a county jail circulated with the rumor that Trick had been the one to release them. Meanwhile it was rumored that Plies had let his success go to his head and was catchin ego problems with both Trick and Ross, who was actually more successful than Plies. Jay-Z stepped down from his post at Def Jam, which meant Ross had lost one of his two main mentors at the label. But Ross’ main mentor and close friend Shakir Stewart was shot to death (reportedly self-inflicted) in November.
Through all of this, Ross left Slip-N-Slide and formed his own Maybach Music imprint to ready his third album, Deeper Than Rap. But Ross found himself in the middle of another beef, this time with one of rap’s bigger names, 50 Cent.
In what has to be a strategic move from the Ross/Fat Joe/Wayne/Khaled-camp, Ross threw some bars at Fiddy on the first street/buzz-single from the new album, “Mafia Music,” a J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League-produced sequel-of-sorts to “Maybach Music.” The music was lush, just like its’ predecessor, but more musical with opera-sounding background vocals, and lyrically Ross stepped up his game significantly. But the 50 bars come on the heels of Fiddy going aggressively after Fat Joe, who was also dropping heat in return, and Wayne, who gave no real response.
Over the weekend, shit hit the fan as Fifty went on a rampage against Ross. First came a terrible diss record which featured some bad lines and more attempts at baiting Wayne, a hillarious cartoon, and a youtube-esque vid of 50 interviewing and then taking one of Ross’ baby mama’s shopping. In the midst of this, Def Jam leaked the first commercial single for Ross’ new set, the incredibly dope “Magnificent” featuring John Legend. Ross’ album is set for release in Spring, but the hype of this beef, as well as the two dope singles, may push its’ release up. It will be interesting to see where Ross goes next with this. He’s continuing to drop hot music, but one has to wonder if that is enough with all of 50’s outside-of-music gimmicks. We’ll have to see….
Loose Singles:
“Hustlin (Remix)” (featuring Jay-Z & Young Jeezy)
“Here I Am” (featuring Nelly & Avery Storm)
“Maybach Music” (featuring Jay-Z)
“This Is The Life” (featuring Trey Songz)
VLS/Promo Singles:
“Get Away” (feat. Mario Winans)
(Ran out of time to do the other one today.)
