I think I speak for a lot of normal black people when I say that I sometimes grow tired of the rapper Rick Ross. Ross has always been a creative, yet relatively useless public figure in the past, but his recent disrespect for the legacy of Trayvon Martin might be the straw that breaks the fat man’s back.
Rick’s use of Trayvon’s name in the song “Mastermind” could be subject to interpretation, and he’s being very careful to try to brush it over. But when you put these lyrics into context by analyzing the entirety of what Ross represents, you realize that, for this particular artist, using the name “Trayvon Martin” in any song isn’t usually going to do anything for anyone but himself.
I love hip-hop music more than any other artform and I am friends with quite a few artists. So, this makes me that much more comfortable pointing out the rappers who stand up for real black men vs. the corporatized buffoons who are sending black men off the edge of a cliff. Here are a few reasons that Rick Ross should find something else to rap about and keep Trayvon Martin’s name out of his mouth.
1) Trayvon is dead: Maybe Rick didn’t mean any harm with his lyrics about Trayvon, but the fact is that Trayvon Martin and his legacy are sacred. Using a dead teenager for target practice is off limits, and Rick’s advisors should have known better. Whether it is Nicki Minaj using Malcolm’s image on an album cover, or Lil Wayne comparingEmmett Till’s face to a woman’s v@gina, there must come a day when toxic hip-hop artists are made aware that the black community is not going to allow you to give away every inch of our culture and heritage to the white man who pays you the most money. Hip-hop was meant to SERVE black people, not SELL them.
2) He doesn’t have anything useful to say: When the world was protesting Trayvon’s brutal murder, Rick was smoking blunts with his “niggaz” in the booth and trying to make more money. The only time Trayvon Martin, or any kind of black struggle enters his conscience is when he thinks he can get paid off of it. Maybe instead of commercializing Trayvon’s death for their own selfish purposes, artistic calamities like Ross can get off their butts and fight for something worthwhile. Ross has gladly taken millions of dollars to use his urban influence to get black kids to buy expensive sneakers they can’t afford, but rarely does he use that influence to get them to do something positive.
3) Rick’s a fraud: I happen to be acquaintances with the real Freeway Ricky Ross, the man who controlled much of the drug trade on the West Coast 25 years ago. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Rick uses the same name as the original Mr Ross, and I’m astonished that the real Rick Ross hasn’t been able to successfully sue him for tens of millions of dollars he’s earned by using that name as his own. What makes him even more fraudulent is that the rapper Rick Ross was once a law abiding citizen (William Leonard Roberts II) who is now earning millions of dollars glorifying the very same behavior that the original Rick Ross has forsaken. So, as the first Rick goes around the country telling young people to learn from his mistakes, the chubby dude is begging young black men to repeat them
4) He’s made himself worthless to the African American community: Maybe some people are impressed by the fact that, during the age of weaponized black psychological genocide, Ross is able to gain respect from some because he has a lot of money. But I’m a Finance professor, and I am able to see beyond the money to assess what he really is: A morbidly obese, self-destructive, possibly drug addicted, over-tatooed, sexually-irresponsible monstrocity of a human-being who might likely be dead before the age of 45. Toxic artists like Ross spend their lives spitting one poisonous verse after another that only increases the likelihood that more black men will end up shot, in prison or infected with STDs.
Here’s just a random sample of some “classic” Rick Ross lyrics:
“Designer jeans, and a hand full of dough (Yeah) Bottle of the Jose, pass me some more I got, more cars, more cars, more clothes, more clothes more money means more dough to blow (blow) more money means more dough to blow (blow) more money means more dough for blow”
Rick, I hate to say this my brother, but YOU-ARE-THE-ENEMY. There is almost nothing that comes out of your mouth that will help any black man become empowered to protect himself against all of the forces out there that are designed to destroy him. You’re pretty much teaching black men to become sitting ducks and partners in their own oppression. Rather than hip-hop being used as a weapon to fight against our oppressors (“Fight the power” and “You Must learn” by Public Enemy and KRS One), certain artists have been paid off by corporations to turn the gun right back on their own people, and it has literally blown our kids’ brains out.
The bottom line for Rick Ross or anyone else who is determined to ruin both hip-hop music and the African American community is that WE DON’T NEED YOU. You can make your money, smoke your weed, drink your liquor, pop your mollies, eat your fried chicken and do whatever you want while sitting on the sidelines, but don’t get in the mix when real black men are trying to do something productive for our families and our children. While there are conscientious hip-hop artists like Immortal Technique who use the power of hip-hop to uplift, we are constantly dealing with an intellectual virus that has infected some of the biggest names in the industry who are turning some of our kids into zombies.
Trayvon Martin means far more to the rest of us than a convenient and profitable rap verse. He was a precious young black male who gave something to the black community that will never be forgotten. So, the same way people want to hang George Zimmerman by his testicles for stalking and killing Trayvon, we should be equally diligent in confrtonting hip-hop artists who are determined to urinate on all that remains good about being black.
This kind of ignorance should not be tolerated, and we must deal with it by any means necessary.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a professor at Syracuse University and author of the book, “Financial Lovemaking 101: Merging Assets with Your Partner in Ways that Feel Good.” To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
