After months of denials and flat-out refusing to address the subject, [artist id="2000082"]Rick Ross[/artist] has admitted to being employed as a correctional officer. In the May issue of XXL magazine, the Miami rap star finally owns up.

"Me not answering or addressing that situation has nothing to do with my career," he's quoted as saying. "I've accomplished enough, and I've made enough money for me to be good. ... Yes, it was me in those pictures. But I'mma tell you this. Me taking that job, I was doing my job. You understand what I mean?"

After a picture of Ross wearing a guard uniform leaked onto the Internet, The Smoking Gun Web site was the first to crack the case concerning Ross' controversial background. They released purported official papers detailing his job and old pay stubs. While the evidence of Ross' past seemed irrefutable, the MC had brushed it off until now, despite blog talk and continual mocking from 50 Cent (the G-Unit have constantly called him "Officer Ricky" in songs and interviews).

Ross told XXL that his credibility cannot be fazed and the drug-dealing stories in his songs are authentic.

"The stuff I talk about is real. The dope is real," he insisted. "The gun talk is official. Look up [notorious Miami gang member] Kenneth 'Boobie' Williams. Look where he's from. That's not nothing to be proud of. I wish that on no man. But, just to let you know, that's what I witnessed. It's a reality. I cannot discuss certain people that's still in the streets, and I will not. I took a street oath, and I'mma live by that, and I'mma die by that. And it's not about a music career, 'cause that sh--, I'm good. It's about me and being in the streets."

The article also delves into Ross' much-hyped feud with 50 Cent.

"50 Cent made a statement [that he'll] ruin somebody's life," Ross snarled. "Where I come from, it takes a AK-47 to do that. Cartoons, we laugh — funny. You put on a wig, come out the closet — funny. At the end of the day, we in the streets finna drop another #1 album, we pressing on."

In February, Ross told MTV News that he was not impressed with 50's showing in their battles.

"My freestyles as you could hear them, 'Kiss My Pinky Ring,' I do them in 20 minutes and put them out there," he said. "Those crumble empires. People listening to how potent the music is. That's all this really is for me."

50 Cent is planning to one-up Ross by releasing a sex tape called "Time to Make a Movie" that is said to feature one of Ross' children's mothers, known only as Brooke. At press time, neither 50 Cent nor Ross had responded to MTV News' requests for comment about that report, however, on Thursday afternoon (March 13), 50 released a trailer on his Web site.