The Real Rick Ross is a classic, yet seemingly rare case of a convict truly turning his life around and trying to make a positive impact. His impact should be much louder, but as he’s stated himself, major news channels just won’t give him the time of day. I’m sure maybe 30-50% (sorry for the broad range) of Americans know who he is, even if it’s just through the two lost lawsuits against terrible overweight rapper Rick Ross. The “REAL” Rick Ross started as an illiterate cocaine dealer, went on to make what some would say “lucky” connections for cheaper Nicaraguan coke, and brought it to America to sell to anyone who would buy it. Oh yeah, he sold guns to a lot of crips and bloods too. He created an empire across the entire nation doing this, pulling in millions of dollars a day since the crack epidemic was just exploding. His drug overlords in Nicaragua used their part of the fortune to back the Contra, a coalition of rebel groups looking to overtake their government, a government that preferred to stick to their old ways and did not condone American corporations’ interests in the country. Gary Webb makes the case that the Contra were actually highly influenced by the CIA in his “Dark Alliance” series. Webb later ended up committing suicide, I have suspicions there was more to his death than that, but I’ll save that for another blog. Unfortunately for Rick Ross, just like in the movies, he was set up by his own Nicaraguan drug lord and Contra associate Oscar Danilo Blandón. After his own arrest, Blandon claimed the CIA was fully aware of his cocaine and arms trafficking ring into the United States, as did leaders of Contra. So Rick was in the shit. He was sentenced to life in prison. But an unlikely, ordinary reporter who kept digging would be his saving grace. Once Gary Webb’s writings factual shone a light on the connection between the CIA and Blandon, Ross’s case was appealed and reduced to 20 years in fact that he had been over-sentenced. Or basically, the jig was up that the CIA had used him to spread the crack/cocaine epidemic in predominantly poor black neighborhoods and they had to do something to retain PR. Rick Ross was released from prison on September 29, 2009.

He spent a lot of time reading and writing while in prison, as most people do. He came out of prison with many messages, but here is one; gangsta rap culture is harming America. Greatly. From Ross’ perspective, the CIA used him as a pawn of their’s, an insider of the urban community who could pass this highly addictive and destructive drug to let the communities destroy themselves. Remain in poverty and hopelessness. Something that almost every poor black person has in common is at least one thing, a love for rap music. “Hip hop has taken over the world.” There’s a lot of truth to that. Yet it speaks of killing, selling drugs, womanizing, and really just not having respect for people as a whole. Gangsta rap in particular. In such a society that goes completely bonkers if certain things are uncensored, how can such songs with these meanings be played on radios and shown on tv thousands of times a week? Rick’s theory makes sense, and it’s something I’ve thought about for a while but never really put into words. He believes that the gangsta rap culture, which is everywhere, is a government media weapon used to keep poor black communities down. These rappers are glamorized beyond kings in their music videos, spitting how they came from the bottom selling drugs. Quite a lot of them, not all. I’ve heard of countless rapper “BEEFS” where a rapper will totally dismantle another’s credibility, and the odds of making it big enough as a rapper for main income are probably almost as low as becoming a professional athlete. Rick says this is the message the big media channels are sending, “You go out, you sell drugs. You’re gonna become a big rock star life myself. You’ll never go to prison. And I feel that’s a false message to be giving people who feel hopeless.” As everyone knows, that is not the case. Prisons are privately owned, the more inmates they get, the more money they’ll make. This chart shows the increase in prisoners since prison-owners noticed this scheme. Gangsta rap is encouraging the young, impressionable, hopeless black community into grand delusions that being a criminal could turn them into a king. And sometimes it does, look at “Freeway” Ricky Ross. He was on top of the world for years, got nabbed and served time, but today he’s a free man who is more interested in helping others stay off the beaten path and fall into this great trap, rather than accumulating the millions he once swam in. And you have to admire that.

Stop endorsing music that glamorizes murder, theft, and misogyny.