His mother named him William Roberts, but he’d rather be called Rick Ross—a commanding rapper building his empire on anthemic records gloriously detailing Miami vice and struggle. Catapulted by the success of his first single, the hip-hop hymn “Hustlin’,” Ross’s debut album “Port of Miami” went gold and debuted at No. 1 in 2006. Now his follow-up album, “Trilla,” has repeated that chart-topping feat, making Ross one of the few commercially consistent hip-hop acts in an era of slumping sales.
Shortly before “Trilla” dropped, Metromix caught up with Miami’s new hip-hop kingpin to talk about the Florida rap scene and his love of another chronicler of street life—Martin Scorsese.
When did you first start rapping? Were you really young?I was really into rap music from, like, elementary school. I was in the third or fourth grade when I first heard Luke Skyywalker [a.k.a Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew]. By the time I got to middle school is when N.W.A. came out. By the time I got to high school, that’s when I actually started writing myself.
Some artists in Miami are known for being divisive, but you seem to play well with others. I know you have your own group Carol City Cartel, but what else are you working on down there?I have my own label now, Maybach Music. In South Florida, I believe in everybody getting their chance. Now we have Flo Rida and next up is Brisco. They’re with Poe Boy Entertainment. That’s [run by] E-Class, my partner and brother in this business, and so I’m involved in all that.
You’ve also written a lot of songs for others—when did you start doing that?Late ‘90s, early 2000s. Almost all the music that was out there [from Miami], I was involved, I was in those circles. When Trick Daddy was in the studio putting his albums together, I was in there. When Trina was in there, when Jacki-O came about…I just started doing it and, like, whoever just came in, people from New York started coming down and doing projects and shit. Everyone would always be like, ‘Why don’t you have an album out?’
Has all that work for other people really helped you craft your own songs?Of course. Just for this album “Trilla,” I recorded over 115 songs, because there are a lot of songs that I do that I intentionally know [are] not going to go on my album. I just wanna do it. One morning I just got up and wrote a song about pussy. I just called it “Pussy.” And that’s one of the songs that when everybody comes in the studio, they want to play it because they know nobody else will ever hear it and [they say], “Listen to the shit he just said!”
Kitties aside, what are people going to get with “Trilla”?Just expect the hardest album of the year. The music is exceptionally hard. I’ve got some big records on there. On one, I’ve got Trick Daddy, Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne. It’s called “Luxury Tax,” and it just talks about the price you’ve gotta pay living that life. And the record me and Jay [Z] are on, “Maybach Music,” that’s hip-hop 2009. B-boy hip-hop 2009! I’m really happy with the album and am looking forward to it hitting the streets.
Did you tell everyone you wanted a more aggressive feel this time?Everything is just a little bigger than the first one was, and listening to the finished product, everything turned out better than even I expected. When I did “Port of Miami,” people loved the album. [So] I knew when I came back with this one, I had to make this album a movie. And that’s what I did, I
Scorsese’d it.
Scorsese, is he your favorite?Of course! Of course! He’s going to direct one of my music videos, once I meet him. We’re going to bump into each other, we’re going to chop it up. I got a gift of gab and a way with the words. Yeah.
