Rick Ross

Real Name: William Roberts
D.O.B.: 21st January, 1977 Carol City, Florida

Label: Slip-N-Slide/Def Jam Recordings

Rick Ross is one of today's biggest southern hip-hop artists imitating his career on that of a Scarface or Freeway Rick cocaine kingpin. The rapper was a Florida underground mixtape legend well before his début. The proclaimed boss of Miami glamorises the underworld life of a major dope dealer. Before the 2006 release of Port of Miami he signed with Slip-N-Slide, distributed under Def Jam Records. Port of Miami is certified Platinum by the RIAA. The Alpha Hustler runs his game like Tony Montana. The world is yours.

In 2002 Ross signed with Suave House records, recording plenty of unreleased material as he sat back while other shining stars dropped studio full-length albums. It wasn't until late 2005 when he left Suave in favour if Def Jam's southern imprint, Slip-N-Slide. Here his career gained the limelight and brought us the man we appreciate today. The material was later released by Suave House on the compilation album, Rise To Power in 2007.

Port of Miami

The name of the début album by Miami rapper Rick Ross is a reference to Miami being a major arrival destination for cocaine shipments to America. Throughout the album, Ross makes frequent references to his alleged former life as a big time cocaine dealer. The album was released on August 8, 2006. The first single from the album is "Hustlin", which has received a fair amount of airplay. There is also an official remix to the song, which features Jay-Z and Young Jeezy. The second single was "Cross That Line", which featured Akon, although it was a radio only single with no music video. The third single from the album is the song "Push It", which is produced by J. R. Rotem. This track samples the song "Push It to the Limit" from the classic movie, Scarface.

Port of Miami was met with mixed reviews. With djbooth.net saying "It grasps the listener and tells them what lies under the belly of Miami, the cocaine drug trade." But it received a 2 1/2 out of 5 stars from about.com calling him "A poor man's Young Jeezy." It also received a 3/5 from Rolling Stone.

In 2006, Rick Ross established Rick Ross Charities Inc. which offers educational, social and mentoring programs. Rick Ross is also a part of Poe Boy Entertainment, a Miami-based Hip-Hop label founded in 1999 by his manager Eldrin "E-Class" Prince.

Rise to Power

Rise to Power is the second released project from Ross, the first compilation album for the artist. The album was released on September 18, 2007. The album is a collection of unreleased material recorded while at Suave House, (2000 - 2007) before signing to Slip-n-Slide/Def Jam. Therefore, it hasn't received the promotional push that his previous album did. The album debuted at #62 with about 10,000 copies sold that week, much less than his last album, which debuted #1 on the Billboard 200, this is mainly because of little to no promotion for the album, because it is a compilation album with only old recordings. The album has sold over 50,000 copies in the US.

Trilla

Trilla is the second studio album by Miami rapper Rick Ross, released on March 11, 2008. The first single was "Speedin'" featuring R&B singer R. Kelly. "Street Money" featuring Flo Rida was thought to be the second single, but was released as a street single and it did not make the final cut. The second single was chosen to be "The Boss" featuring T-Pain instead.

Trilla debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, making it Rick Ross' second number one album. It sold 198,000 copies in its first week, beating Snoop Dogg's Ego Trippin and Fat Joe's The Elephant in the Room in album sales that first week.

Website: http://www.rickrosstrilla.com/

Discography:

Compilations