So, it seems that photo was not fake, and Rick “The Boss” Ross was indeed a correctional officer once upon a time.
From The Smoking Gun:
Ross (real name: William Leonard Roberts) was appointed a prison guard in December 1995 at a salary of $22,913.54, according to the below personnel record, which was provided to TSG by Jo Ellyn Rackleff, a DoC spokesperson. The rapper’s social security number is identical to that of the jail guard. According to the official document, Ross was earning $25,794.34 when he left the department in June 1997. After graduating from the DoC training academy, Ross was assigned to the South Florida Reception Center in Dade County (the lockup is one of three statewide that serves as an intake facility for new prisoners).
Oh Ricky! After that “my life is 100% real” denial the other day this stuff looks very bad. Something tells me this is gonna have more impact than Akon’s revealed fabrications, mainly becuse Ross is a rapper, not a singer, and no one really checks for Akon records because of his mythical criminal past. But did anyone ever really believe Ross was ever a big time drug kingpin, as he raps so often, and so beautifully? As Miss Info notes:
Clearly Rick Ross claimed his “role” more than others (Too Short and Luke are quick to say they’re not flesh peddlers in real life)…but there’s heavy demand for new rapper “realness” in this biz…maybe he’s like the musical equivalent of a method actor. Didn’t Daniel Day Lewis really think he was Bill the Butcher for a couple months back during
“Gangs of New York”? (I think that really creeped out Cameron Diaz.)
Anyway. Ross dropped a freestyle claiming not to give two craps about what people say on the internets last night. “Bitch I’m the boss and I’m laughing at your blogs!” He says something about being inspired by Too $hort, which is interesting given the context. Check it. I’m checking it. I like Ross’ music, and am, as you know, able to separate artists from their art. That’s why I still bump R Kelly records. Sorry MarvJackTego!
PS - Funniest response from the comments sections of the blogs (yeah I totally read them all) comes from one LandLORD:
… my father was a C.O. …. Brooklyn House Of Detention … no shame in that … but this nigga lied ….
… never trust a bearded man with big breasts to tell the truth …
Etheration.
Tags: bullshit, co, correctional officer, excellent bears, genius, liar, man breats, method actor, rick ross, the boss, titties
The weird thing about this is that when ‘Hustlin’ first started to blow Ross did a load of interviews where he was open about being a former C.O. You’ll see a load of those interviews pop up over the next few weeks. I’m pretty sure he said it on AHH for instance.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:54 am
Hear’s a thing - Can raps proclaiming criminal activity be used as evidence in a criminal court?
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:48 am
They are regularly. You remember when they used Megaman’s raps in court over here to prove he ordered the killing of that guy? He walked in the end because by the sounds of it they didn’t have much.
If you really want to get criminal, when people were asking how old Ross was 2 years ago he was saying 27. He’s 32. Those numbers don’t match.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Oh yeah. So why aren’t more rappers arrested every time they release an album?
RR is still the biggest boss that I’ve seen thus far.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Given the amount of absolute crap that comes out each year, they should be arrested just for that…
On the criminal end of it, though, it’s a weird one. Techically a song could be classed as either public speech or written works. Either way, it could be assumed to be fictional. Without a complaintant or a known specific crime (where ‘the people’ become the complaintant) there’s nothing to charge them with.
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I’ve seen biggest bosses thus far but I think retrospectively Ross might have a point. He’s got that “Thus far” technicality working in his favour which is clever. Also he’s in the white house.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:14 pm
The Daily Sport once ran a collection of nudey pics of girls to ‘celebrate’ the girls’ 16th birthday. Someone pointed out that the pics must have been taken when they were 15, and were therefore illegal. The Sport’s defense was “everyone knows we print lies”.
Funny how rappers fly by the same rules.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Haha. He looks about 10 years older in that pic.
Kelly walked, therefore using the Mike Jackson/ Pete Townsend/ Matthew Kelly rule, I can’t say shit anymore.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
[…] Ross AND Akon? Wow. […]
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Yeah, dude does not look 19! Something in the water in Dade County.
Tego, you found one of those interviews yet?
Just saw the DJ Khaled video. Akon AND Ross! And Trick, weirdly.
I’ve got one of those grime DVDs, in whihc a bunch of rappers wave guns around and adress th camera at length about how many drugs they’ve sold in the past year, where they sold them, how many weapons they’ve got, etc. That shit is so weird. Self snitching is at an all time high!
Here’s Donny Goines on the subject (second vid in as many days):
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BFR9AxXOOBg&eurl
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I searched a bit. Unfortunately a load of internet trolls have gone around to every Rick Ross interview and news feature on the internet in the last week to leave comments about him being a C.O. making it hard to search. They will surface in the next few days I’m sure of it.
July 23rd, 2008 at 3:59 pm