Rick Ross

Sometimes, if you put your hand on the rails, you can feel the train coming. It’s in the air, on the tip of everyone’s tongue. All there is to do is patiently wait. Every once in a while an artist comes along with the force of a natural element and the only thing you can do is get aboard or get out of the way. So, from the good people who brought you the Roc-A-Fella dynasty, the Snowstorm and the College Dropout, we’d like to introduce you to the overnight sensation twelve years in the making: Rick Ross.

You can’t go into a club, get into a car or walk down the block without hearing the clarion call keyboards of Ross’s earthquake of a debut single, “Hustlin’.” It’s the early front-runner for street anthem of the year. On one song alone, Ross has laid it all out there for you to see and hear. Over keyboards that wouldn’t sound out of place scoring the last scene of Scarface Ross posits himself as the Alpha Hustler. The hustler as superhero. But, unbelievably, it’s only a taste.

On Ross’s debut LP, Port Of Miami, you are immediately immersed in a fully fleshed out world. As a member of the Slip-N-Slide (Trick Daddy, Trina) crew Rick Ross is part of a bubbling Miami scene that is sure to be making noise on Atlanta and Houston levels this year. But Ross’s Miami is unlike any one you’re gonna see on a postcard. Rick Ross’s Miami is one where drug deals and dropped bodies happen in the shadows of Art Deco hotels and plush nightclubs. It’s the luxury and the tragedy. It’s an American Dream and an American Nightmare.

“I see this album in the tradition of Reasonable Doubt and Ready To Die,” says Ross. “It’s made to be a classic. It’s made to make everyone stop and re-think the whole game.”

That may sound like a heavy task, but Ross is up to the job. To snatch a phrase from KRS-1, many people know Rick Ross, yet he’s known by few. Ross has been waiting his entire life to make Port Of Miami. He’s been honing his craft as a behind the scenes man, ghostwriting (our lips our sealed on that one), and generally making himself a staple of the Miami hip-hop scene. But his sound isn’t one confined to the bounce and bass that made the city famous.

“I rep Miami, the 305. But my sound goes beyond the city. You can hear everything from UGK to Jay-Z in my music. It’s universal street music. There’s no area code on it.”

In hip-hop, in 2006, you have to be as big as the culture you represent. You have to be more than music, more than mixtapes, more than a fad. You have to be a movement. Rick Ross, in the tradition of Ice Cube and Jay-Z, is a rebel hustler. He’s a renegade who gives you an inside look at how it really goes down in America’s paradise. He gives a voice to those who have none. This summer, you’re going to hear him loud and clear. Hop on board, or get out of the way.

Tattooed with pictures of AK-47s, Miami's six-foot, 300-pound rap figure known as Rick Ross embraced his city's reputation for drug trafficking on his debut single, "Hustlin'," in 2006. While Atlanta and Houston artists were establishing their cities as Southern strongholds, Ross aimed at putting Miami back in rap's national spotlight. Ross, real name William Roberts, grew up in Carol City, FL, an impoverished northern suburb of Miami. Influenced by artists like Luther Campbell and the Notorious B.I.G., Roberts formed local rap group the Carol City Cartel and began rapping in the mid-'90s. (He took his rap name from Los Angeles drug kingpin "Freeway" Rick Ross, who ran one of the largest crack-cocaine distribution networks in the country during the '80s and early '90s.) Ross had a brief stint on Suave House Records, former label of Eightball & MJG, before he ended up on Miami-based Slip-N-Side Records, the label home of Trick Daddy and Trina. During the early to mid-2000s, he became popular and well known locally through touring with Trick Daddy and guest-appearing on a few Slip-N-Slide releases, but didn't release any solo material until 2006. Once "Hustlin'" caught the ear of a few executives within the national industry, a bidding war ensued that included offers from Bad Boy CEO Sean "Diddy" Combs and The Inc. (formerly Murder Inc.) president Irv Gotti. Nonetheless, Def Jam president and veteran rapper Jay-Z signed Ross to a multi-million-dollar deal. The Miami anthem "Hustlin'" went on to receive gold status from RIAA in May 2006 and sold over a million ringtone units before the physical release of his debut album, Port of Miami. Released in August 2006, Ross' debut was Slip-N-Side's first project under the Def Jam partnership, and it went to number one on the Billboard album chart. His follow-up, Trilla, was released the following year, prefaced with the Cool & Dre-produced title track. Early 2009 saw the release of Deeper Than Rap, an album greeted with numerous positive reviews in the hip-hop press. ~ Cyril Cordor, All Music Guide