Rick Ross outed as a former corrections officer
The Smoking Gun publishes documents confirming Miami MC Rick Ross had worked as a Florida Department of Corrections officer from 1995 to 1997. The revelation directly contradicts Ross's persona — built around drug-trafficking narratives that adopted the name of the actual 1980s Los Angeles cocaine kingpin Freeway Ricky Ross. Ross initially denies the documents' authenticity before eventually acknowledging them, then continues releasing commercially successful albums largely unaffected.
Why it matters
July 21, 2008. The Smoking Gun, a tabloid investigative site that had been running employment-document exposes on famous people for years, published Florida Department of Corrections personnel records showing that William Roberts II, who recorded as Rick Ross, had worked as a corrections officer at South Florida Reception Center from 1995 through 1997. The site posted his employment photo, his identification badge, and his signed personnel paperwork. The revelation was a problem because Ross's entire public persona was built around a drug-trafficking-kingpin character, with his stage name taken from the actual 1980s Los Angeles cocaine dealer Freeway Ricky Ross (who would later, in 2010, sue the rapper unsuccessfully). The actual Rick Ross would, on his next album Trilla (already out), have lyrics like "every day I'm hustlin'." The actual Ross had been hustling, in 1996, as a corrections officer drawing a state paycheck. He denied the documents' authenticity initially. He acknowledged them when the denial became untenable. Then he kept making records. Teflon Don, his commercial breakthrough album, came out two years later. You can argue authenticity is the load-bearing element of rap personae. The Ross case argues it is not, at least not anymore.
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