William Leonard Roberts II is an artist who makes music in the rap genre. He is better known as Rick Ross.
Early life:
William was born on January 28, 1976 In Clarksdale in Mississippi. However, he was actually raised in Florida where he attended schools. He finished the Miami Carol City Senior High School and enrolled the Albany State University because he had a scholarship from sports. He was always interested in sports, but later in his life forgot about them.
The Uni was full of african-american people andnhe said that he felt the best in this surrounding.
He ended up working in the spot a of a correctional officer and he did this job for 18 months. In June 1997, he decided that it was enough of doing the things he didn’t like and he wanted to become someone more influential.
Career development:
His early career was dedicated to making music under the name Teflon Da Don and he made a debut at the Suave House Records. The song wad called “Ain’t Shhh to Discuss”.
In 2000s, he decided that he needed a better stage name and came up with Rick Ross. He actually had some inspiration because of the “Freeway” Rick Ross, a drug dealer.
He soon got a deal with Suave House Records, then with Slip-n-Slide Records. These were his first big deals and they skyrocketed him amongst other stars.
He went on tour with Trick Daddy and he made some songs for the official record house albums.
His debut album was called Port of Miami and he made it around the summer of 2006. It went straight to the top on Billboard’s chart in the US and sold like crazy!
The Rolling Stone magazine claimed that it will be the best album in the hiphop genre for the year!
His next work was “Push It” made for Scarface. This was very popular in the context of the movie.
He soon started to work more with other artists like DJ Khaled. He became good friends with DJ Khaled too and later Khaled will get in controversies because of him.
In 2006, he got a Gold certification from the RIAA. He was very proud of himself and had known that his career was on the right path.
He made his next album (2nd ) in March 2008 and it was called Trilla. The album, like the previous one, ended up high on the charts.
The most popular single was for sure “Speedin” that he had made with the famous R Kelly.
All of his next singles got on the Top 100 charts on Billboard: “The Boss ft. T-Pain”, “Here I Am ft Nelly”.
Rick Ross was starting to intimidate other artists in the music industry since every somg he made ended up high on the charts, pushing other artists down.
In 2009, he made Deeper Than Rap and a track in this album that got particularly good reviews was “Valley of Death”.
In this song he opened up about his previous life and childhood. He spoke about his job as a prison guard and kept telling how he didn’t even have a gun while he was there.
He says how he had to manage his own life as a kid and that he was even involved in drugs which he sold for some money.
There is some controversy about this song and particularly about the child support that he never seemed to pay.
In the XXL magazine in 2009, Rick ended up on the cover with some Louis Vuitton sunglasses. This cause huge controversy since someone noticed that the sunglasses are fake. However, later it had turned our that they were personalized by a professional.
Since 2010, he made quite a lot of EPs and albums.
He released Alber Anastasia EP, his studio album Teflon Don which showed his origins.
“Super High” is a song that he had made with Ne-Yo and it was featuring Stacey Dash, a beautiful actress, in the music video.
The second single was produced by the famous Kanye West and it was called Live Fast, Die Young.
The album sold like crazy, in the first week almost 180 000 copies were grabbed from the stores.
Rick worked with Diddy next and it was a collaboration with his Ciroc Entertainment.
In 2011, he signed Meek Mill to his imprint.
They soon made a compilation album.
One of the biggest appearances he has made was on the BET Awards in 2011. He was soon proclaimed the Hottest MC in the Game.
2012 was no less good: he made a mixtape Rich Forever, released his next compilation, made a fifth album.
This one was called God Forgives, I Don’t. It was delayed for a few times yet it finally saw the light of the charts in various countries soon after: the UK, the R&B in UK.
This was the most popular album he had ever made. It was number one at Billboard 200 and the sales went over 220 000 copies in a week.
The album featured many awesome and popular artists: Usher, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, Meek Mill and so on.
His mixtape The Black Bar Mitzvah was the final act that got him nominated as the “Man of the Year”.
His sixth album was supposed to be released in 2013 and it was called Mastermind.
It ended up being released in 2014 in March. Again, it soon made it to the top of the most famous chart in the world: Billboard 200.
Besides music, he also appeared in Sisterhood of Hip Hop, a series. This was a huge thing for him since he always wants to share more about the rap culture.
2014 was also a very good year and he said that he is preparing another album, Hood Billionaire.
It was released in November, but Rick teased his fans for a long time.
This is the first album that had mixed reviews both from the critics that have heard it and from the nation that had bough it.
Since 2015, he had made some great music, but he also had private issues.
In 2014, he made a mixtape called Black Dollar and soon teased the fans again by presenting them the idea if the eight album: Black Market.
The songs on the album were controversial because theytalked about assassination of Trump.
In 2016, he decided to join Epic Records and had made connections with L.A. Reid again.
He later made remixes of various dongs of other hip hop artists and had said that he is working on his ninth studio album, Rather You Than Me.
Personal life:
2015 was not a good year for Rick’s private life and image. He ended up in houuse arrest after he had been charged with kidnapping and assault.
He engaged a beautiful star Lira Galore, but their relationship couldn’t make it through all of the controversy.
He joined Snapchat and posted funny content there.
Rick Ross is very religious, believe it or not. He said that the wisest words he ever got was not to question God.
In 2011, his fans got really upset after Rick has two seizures and was admitted to the hospital. However, it ended up all being okay.
In 2013, he was a victim of drive-by shooting in Florida. Both him and his girlfriend were okay, but they crashed the car while escaping.
He dated a few women: a fashionista Shateria Moragne-el, Lira Mercer and a few other unknown women.
His relationships don’t seem to work out because of the high tempo he has in life.
Ross has been admitted to the police a few times.
In 2008, he claimed to be involved with a gang called Triple C’s after being admitted for illegal possesion of both guns and marijuana.
DJ Vlad, a YouTuber, had to sue him because he organized an attack on him at the 2008 Ozone Awards.
He also got sued for his stage name, a few more time because of marijuana, but he never had serious consenquences. He also owns a few Wingston restaurants.
There has been quite some controversy about him and 50 Cent. The story began at the BET awards, where 50 Cent looked at Rick Ross as if he threatened him, but Cent later denied of seeing him.
Rick dissed him in his music, and 50 Cent made a whole single to get revenge. 50 Cent later also turned against all of his co-workers and dissed them too.
A common controversy with rap musicians is that they are judged for their lyrics.
Rick has been told that he is promoting rape and date rapes.
He had appeared on various shows: Jimmy Kimmel live!, Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon…
After the seizures he had, the 350 pounds he had needed to be lowered down. He started ti exercise and eat better and therefore lost 75 pounds and is still losing more.
Quick summary
Full name: William Leonard Robert II
Date of birth: January 28, 1976
Birthplace: Clarksdale, Mississippi
Age: 41
Profession: musician
Height: 180 cm
Weight: 130kg
Net Worth: $35 million
