Rick Ross
Deeper Than Rap(Maybach/Poe Boy/Def Jam)
Credibility is dead. Long live credibility. Rick Ross’ tumultuous last 12 months have proved as much. In July 2008, the self-proclaimed “Boss” and cocaine kingpin was outed by The Smoking Gun as a one-time correctional officer in South Florida’s penal system during 1995-1997. And while such an ignominious past drew chuckles across Rap America—“Officer Ricky” became an oft-uttered nom de humiliation for the erstwhile William Leonard Roberts—Ross weathered the storm by doing what any defiant star would: he improved. On a series of freestyles recorded throughout 2008, a new Ross began to emerge. Gone was the reliance on same-word rhyme structures —the “At-lantic”/“At-lantic” binary from 2006’s “Hustlin’” still lives in infamy—and a lazy vocal approach. In 2006, for the since-shuttered Blender, I wrote about Ross’ debut, Port of Miami (Slip-N-Slide/Def Jam): “[Ross] tends to sit on top of beats, insisting that his presence is enough to make a hit. It isn’t.” Ross’ smoky groan made him distinctive, but it was also a liability. When he began to slide into pocket last year, harnessing a surprisingly fluid flow and an impressive array of clever punchlines, questions about his past lingered—but they never overwhelmed. His progress manifests itself in surprising, and even thrilling ways on Deeper Than Rap, his third album and easily his best.
Buttressing Ross throughout is a shimmering, full-bodied series of productions, supplied by a relatively new breed of Southern beatmakers that represent Miami rap’s duality: the gloss and the growl. These songs are the sound of wealth (imagined or not). Every soul loop and orchestral percussion strike is perfectly calibrated, thanks, in part, to Ross’ long working relationship with the producers on hand. Tampa trio J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, in particular, shines. The unheralded trio has emerged in recent years as a go-to for swirling, operatic rap melodrama—they are responsible for Young Jeezy’s “Bury Me A G” and Ross’ own “Luxury Tax.”
Here they handle three successive highlights: the mellifluous, poorly-titled “Maybach Music 2,” the Angela Bofill-sampling “Magnificent,” and “Yacht Club” featuring dancehall upstart Magazeen. Each track accomplishes a different goal. “Magnificent” is a hunk of expensive, smelly cheese; an affirmation of Ross’ social climb. “Yacht Club” is an audacious party invitation, a bit tin-eared in these troubling times but no less infectious. “Maybach” is the album’s most interesting song, as Ross takes his best beat—a grandiloquent processional—and allows a battle for rap primacy to ensue. Kanye West kicks things off, and Lil Wayne closes, while T-Pain croons his best hook in months, leaving Ross to wallow in the middle. Only he doesn’t. “I was barely gettin’ pretty women/Now I scoop Emmy-winners like kitty litter/ Any winner, Fendi denim, like a slender nigga/ Lookin’ in the mirror I can see the real contender/ Celery for even Gregory I’m on my dinner/ So what the fuck is you telling me other than your gender?” he barks. This is not the same Rick Ross.
Elsewhere The Runners, The Inkredibles and DJ Toomp offer manicured, rousing anthems. “Lay Back” featuring Robin Thicke builds and releases ecstatically. Drumma Boy’s “Face,” featuring Trina, is lewd, vintage Slip-N-Slide sex rap. And Toomp’s “Valley of Death” balances regret with ferocious attacks—“When I see this monkey I’ma be the devil,” Ross raps about 50 Cent. It’s the second attack of three on the album. The first, “Mafia Music,” set off the firestorm in late January. 50 quickly seized on the opportunity to recharge his own slumping musical career. But baby mama sex tapes and bewigged lampoonery aside, Ross has fired the more eloquent, incisive darts. If rap battles are still about rap—and they most certainly are not—then Ross has won. That he ends the album’s final song, “In Cold Blood,” with a limp prison call-in from Bang ‘em Smurf, the small-time rapper and 50 Cent rival, is a distracted ending for an impressively focused effort.
As his battle with the ever-impish 50 rages on, Ross has refocused the once so essential question of legitimacy in hip hop—it is an ironic treat that the guileless white boy Asher Roth is releasing his album in the same week. Good music is good music is good music. Ross has, at least, made that.
Deeper Than Rap is in stores 4/21/09
Track listing for Deeper Than Rap
1. “Mafia Music”
2. “Maybach Music 2” feat. T-Pain, Lil Wayne & Kanye West
3. “Magnificent” feat. John Legend
4. “Yacht Club” feat. Magazeen
5. “Usual Suspects” feat. Nas
6. “All I Really Want” feat. The-Dream
7. “Rich Off Cocaine”
8. “Lay Back” feat. Robin Thicke
9. “Murda Mami” feat. Foxy Brown
10. “Gunplay” feat. Gunplay
11. “Bossy Lady” feat. Ne-Yo
12. “Face” feat. Trina
13. “Valley Of Death”
14. “In Cold Blood”
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