Rick Ross: God forgives, I don’t

Despite suffering a health scare just before the release of his new album God Forgives, I Don’t, William Leonard Roberts II aka Rick Ross stages a Sh15 million East African show and leaves behind a major buzz, write PETER NDORIA, PETER ADAMZ and STEVENS MUENDO

It was shortly after midnight in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and with his six-man entourage, Rick Ross drove into the massively packed Leaders Club.

Donning a black T-shirt and blue designer jeans, The Boss (as the American is popularly known) took to the stage flanked by several hype-men. The crowd burst into frenzied ululation. This was the moment many hip-hop heads in East Africa had been waiting for, for months.

With his controversial album, the American hip-hop don made an emphatic comeback in July this year announcing that he was ready to rule the hip-hop world.

Not so long ago, the scene was different. Rick Ross had only managed to sell less than a million albums in 2008 when word went out that he had once worked as a correctional officer at a Florida prison.

Conventional wisdom dictated that this would be a curtain call for his career. Being part of the system can be fatal to a rapper’s street cred... or at least that is how things used to be.

When he got into a feud with 50 Cent, the odds were stacked heavily against him. Somehow though, he survived both, and even flourished — on the strength of his music.

Maybach Music

Joining forces with Sean Diddy Combs’ Bad Boy Management briefly in 2010, Ross manoeuvred himself into a position of great power.

But then again, a scary moment last October, when Rick Ross suffered two seizures in a day, made big news on the Internet and delayed the production of his fifth album.

Now The Boss has legacy on his mind.

“I am ready for what’s to come,” he says.

In Dar, featuring in the annual Fiesta concert, where his competitors Jay Z and 50 Cent have wowed the masses in the past, the Maybach Music Group boss seemed to have one thing in mind; extending his hip-hop supremacy to Africa — ready for what’s to come.

Full of energy and exuding extraordinary lyrical prowess, the Billboard topping hit-maker started his show with hits from his Port of Miami, Trilla and Teflon Don albums among them The Boss (featuring T-Pain), Here I Am (featuring Nelly) and Super High (featuring Ne-Yo).

The crowd seemed startled by his ingenuity as he gave a good account of himself, striking bar after bar of his lyrics.

Some minutes after midnight, the crowd became unmanageable as everyone fought to get a vantage spot to get a good view.

The bouncers earned their pay managing the crowds. Journalists were not spared in the near-stampede scare — as a battery of paparazzi flickered away every moment of the show.

Dotting the crowd were acclaimed Tanzanian celebrities whose celebrity status seemed to have taken a backseat . However, a number of local talents like Juma Nature and Diamond were bestowed the pleasure of stealing the show shortly after Rick Ross called it a day. Celebrated Kenyan emcee and radio host Shaffie Weru and Code Red’s Poji were among the special guests who followed the show from the VIP stand.

As anticipated, The Boss said that his new Rich Forever hit was a statement and he didn’t really care much how people translated it.

The beef clauses

“I really don’t have any opinion to give on the so called YMGMB and Good Music beef as I don’t know the facts on that. I am the boss and the boss talks facts,” he told  Pulse during an interception interview shortly before the show.

Cleverly, Ross evaded taking sides on the rivalry between the two camps, both of which he has worked with.

The emotional delivery of his You the Boss and I Love My Bitches, drawn from his latest album, drew the show to a grand climax as his hype-men, sound control engineers and emcee gave their all.

By the time the deejay was doing a teaser of Ross’s other new songs So Sophisticated (featuring Meek Mill), Touch N You (featuring Usher) and Hold Me Back, the crowd was already in near ecstasy.

Upon arrival in Tanzania that Friday night, Rick Ross and his entourage gave the media a miss and headed straight to his hotel amidst tight security.

Apparently, all was not well as Rick Ross had left his luggage in Amsterdam and besides the white T-shirt and the jeans trouser he was wearing, he literally had no other clothes to change into.

Even frantic efforts by the event organisers to get him some wear hit a brick wall, as they could not get any designs that impressed him.

As he went on stage, he borrowed his bouncer’s T-shirt.

“We are just extra careful about Rick’s security. Next (this) weekend, he is set to kick off the much anticipated Dreams and Nightmares MMG tour in the States and we are not taking chances,” one of his security detail told Pulse on Sunday when we caught up with the team at their hotel.

The American star is among international celebrities who have graced the annual Tanzanian extravaganza. However, the timing of his visit during a time when his new album was ruling the hip-hop scene in America amidst his much talked about feud with 50 was glaring.

Beautiful Onyinye, the hot collabo he recorded with Nigeria’s P Square in June, also seemed to attract a major media alert on his latest focus in Africa.

In January 2009, Ross started a feud with 50 Cent because he supposedly looked at him the wrong way at the BET Awards. 50 Cent told news sources that he could not remember seeing Ross there.

 In late January, Mafia Music, by Ross, leaked onto the Internet. There were several lines that seemed to diss 50 Cent. Days later, 50 Cent released Officer Ricky (Go Head, Try Me) in response to Ross’s disparaging remarks on his Mafia Music song.

Before going to Venezuela, 50 Cent uploaded a video entitled Warning Shot, wherein he stated: “Rick Ross, I’mma f*** your life up for fun.”

That notwithstanding, Rick Ross’s legacy seems to be scaling to new heights this year, thanks to ambition, drive, an eye for talent and an ear for block rocking beats. And so it seems, the Maybach Music Group boss is ready for it all.