WITH THREE SOLID ALBUMS UNDER HIS BELT AND THE HIT RECORD “BMF” TAKING OVER NIGHTCLUBS AND RADIO STATIONS ACROSS THE WORLD, MI-YAYO’S RICK ROSS NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION. You’ve been talking a lot about “groundwork.” In the music business today, it seems like that’s a lost art form. Do you think artists in general have become lazier when it comes to the promotions and marketing? I think overall the music business in general cut back on a lot of promotion. I feel that a lot of artists take shortcuts with all this new technology. But I feel like you really need to have a balance of both. You’ve got to stay in the streets. I think people still need to see the physical promotion on the streets to capture the essence of your movement. And I think when [labels] cut back [on promotion], they tend to cut back on the smaller markets first. Those are the markets I try to still touch, because no market is really too small to touch. How would you define “groundwork”? To me, groundwork entails every aspect of hitting the community and making sure they understand you. Regardless if you’re promoting an album release date or you’re coming into the community to do community work, you need to make sure you accomplish your goal. You have to go straight to the source by hitting the vein of the community and working your way through. It’s pretty easy to find the vein. You just need to get in the streets and find the masses of people. You can start in a neighborhood or at the mall. You really just want to get out there and shake hands and network and let them know you’re here. Lately you’ve been referring to yourself as Rozay. Are you considering an official name change? It seems like you’re going that direction, and you’re being managed now by Diddy, who of course has been through several name changes as well. That’s just an alias for me. Was it related to “Freeway” Ricky Ross’s lawsuit, claiming that you owed him money for adopting his name? Not at all. There was an injunction filed against my album but it was dismissed. Overall, that shit isn’t going to work. Do I take it personally? Of course not. I feel like he was just rolling the dice, and we’re going to move forward regardless. I just wondered if it was a Diddy suggestion. I’m sure with all the success he’s had over the years, he’s able to give you some good advice. Is there anything he’s told you in particular that stands out? You know we got the rap game on lock. Diddy is great in other arenas. Aside from my personal situation, he’s got a lot going on outside the music. We have a couple things that we’re negotiating right now outside the music arena, so we’ll be able to make announcements real soon. It takes time and everything is in development. You signed a couple producers. Do you think that’s a better route to go, having folks in-house rather than going out and paying for beats externally? You’re asking me? You know that answer. Of course it’s a great thing. Anytime you can do business with great producers like The Olympicks and The Transformers and make them a part of the movement, it’s always a better situation. You’ve been real heavy with putting out viral videos and leaking music on the internet. Do you have the mentality that putting out more music and visuals will push more people to buy your album? Once your album gets to the stores your shit is going to be on the internet anyway, so leaks are not a big deal. That’s happened with every one of my albums. To me, I consider a real album “leak” to be one that comes out five or six weeks before the release date. You’ve done a lot of charity events in Miami. What do you have coming up with your non-profit? Y’all can go to rickrosscharities.com and see what’s crackin’. I let my charity deal with the charity work and I usually don’t talk too much about what we do with the charity, because I think you really should just do that from the heart. I let my team deal with that because they’re the best at it. At one point, you were anti-Twitter and making fun of people who were on it. What convinced you to go ahead and join? I still make fun of half of the people that’s on Twitter, but we’ve been getting so much love we thought it would be a good idea to give back. It’s cool, they be quoting your rhymes on Twitter and you can hit a few people back every now and then, so it’s cool. But some people just take Twitter too far.
Too far in what way? Being addicted? Tweeting everyone links to your music is not going to break your records. I think it’s a cool way to find out what’s up, stay in touch, and shout out different markets. If you’re going to do something in the market you can get a lot of love on Twitter, pay homage to a city or two, and keep it moving when you slide through. I think that’s really what it’s good for. There was a controversial video clip of your artist Gunplay in Colombia snorting cocaine. What’s your opinion on having somebody in your camp not only using drugs, but putting it out on the ‘net for everyone to see? Does it concern you at all? That’s my brother and that’s all I’m going to say about that. Okay, fair enough. I know you and Diddy have been cool for a while, but how did it get to the point where he decided to actually start managing you and partner together on projects? You know, that’s the homie. He’s gonna be the homie forever. But we just put our business in perspective and now we’re tackling some of these outside entities that are interested in doing business with me. Endorsements and such. I heard a radio interview where they were comparing you to Biggie and you didn’t like that too much. But at the same time, it almost does seem like Diddy has Bad Boy Pt. 2 with you and Nicki Minaj filling the part of Biggie and Lil Kim. Do you see that being a valid comparison? I think we’re the hottest in the game, and that’s when the comparisons stop. Biggie was one of a kind, and I’m most definitely doing my thing. You’ve definitely stepped your game up musically on each album. Even the critics have noticed the progression. It seems like a lot of artists do the opposite – their first album is their hottest, and then they fall off over time. How do you constantly challenge yourself to step it up musically? Just really investing in myself and focusing on the music and nothing else. I feel like that’s really paying off. When you go in the booth to record, what’s the key to blocking out all the external factors? By the time I’m walking in the booth I’m already in that zone. When I go in the studio I leave everything else outside the studio, regardless, so by the time I go into the booth it’s time to execute the plan. The plan is to sound better than everybody else’s shit. That’s my whole mental process. You came out with “BMF” and then Jeezy came out with “The Real BMF” and folks were kind of amping that up into a beef… Man, we getting money and making hits. I’ve been eating steaks every day at Ruth’s Chris; prime rib. As far as “BMF,” I was just making a hit record and saluting the big homie [Big Meech] at the same time. What made you go with Teflon Don as the title? That was one of my original rap names, and it fit the situation. You have some artists under you now as well, right? Is that a challenge to be both a manager/CEO and an artist? It’s all about Teflon Don right now as well as Masspike Miles and Triple C’s. I’m also managing the MTV-award winning video director Spiff TV. We’re just continuing to build our brand and do what we do. Of course it’s a challenge and that’s why we do it. The greater the challenge, the greater the reward. I know you’ve been all over the world touring recently. Is there one particular place you’ve been that really stood out to you? I can find something interesting in every place we’ve been. You can go to Germany and see a 500 year old castle and that’s a real dope experience. But at the same time, you could be somewhere as simple as Jamaica smoking good trees and eating fried fish. California has taken steps towards legalizing marijuana. Do you feel like the rest of the country is moving in that direction too? It would be a great day in America. You would hold the Ricky Rozay Freedom Parade? We might just all put it in the air at the same time once or twice a year. Would you like to plead to Barack Obama to legalize marijuana in your OZONE cover story? No thanks. If I talk to Barack Obama it’s going to be big business, no nonsense. It’d be about something real important. I’ve got another level of respect for that man. I wouldn’t even disrespect the team on that level. //
OZONE MAG // 41