When you first hear the name “Rick Ross”, you might think of a plump gentlemen with a gold chain around his neck that raps for a living. Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like you all to meet the Real Rick Ross:

“Freeway” Rick Ross is arguably one of the most famous drug traffickers in American history. He was a key drug kingpin in the 1980’s during the crack epidemic. At his prime, he had thousands of drug dealers under him and was averaging at least $2 million dollars a day in revenue. Unfortunately, his downfall came when his main cocaine source helped the FBI lead to his arrest. In a past video footage recorded by TMZ, Ross says the prosecutor valued his net worth at around $600 million during the time of his incarceration. After his release in 2009, with a second chance at life, Ross is now focused on his 5 small businesses and reclaiming his name and identity in court with rapper Rick Ross.

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with the man himself. In this exclusive interview, Rick Ross talks about his life as a drug kingpin, how he became successful, and his motto for taking risks in life when it comes to business.

Here are some highlights of the interview:

On how he was able to manage over 1000 drug dealers that were under him during the 1980’s

Well you know, you have to have an attitude of caring about people. I mean when I tell that to people they are like “Ah man! You sold drugs! How can you care about people?”, but you really do have to care about people. What a lot of people don’t understand is that when I first started selling drugs, I didn’t understand the negatives effects of the drug. Only thing I knew is that every time people would get ready to go party, they wanted to be high. So I related it to having fun and it was a while before I found out the negative effects, but I really really genuinely love people.

On how he treated the people that were under him during his drug dealing days

If somebody robs you or steals your dope, a lot of people would go out and kill em’. I didn’t look at it like that, because when I started a business, I vowed that I would never hurt anyone over money. And I believe that that helped me to stay out of prison right now.

How he kept people loyal to him