Rick Ross

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William Leonard Roberts II, better known by his stage name Rick Ross, sometimes written as Rick Ro$$ is an American rapper. He took his stage name from the drug trafficker "Freeway" Ricky Ross, to whom he has no connection. Rick Ross has also founded his own record label Maybach Music Group, on which he released his third studio album Deeper Than Rap.

Tattooed with pictures of AK47s, Miami's sixfoot, 300pound rap figure known as Rick Ross embraced his city's reputation for drug trafficking on his debut single, "Hustlin'," in 2006. While Atlanta and Houston artists were establishing their cities as Southern strongholds, Ross aimed at putting Miami back in rap's national spotlight. Ross, real name William Roberts, grew up in Carol City, FL, an impoverished northern suburb of Miami.

Influenced by artists like Luther Campbell and the Notorious B.I.G., Roberts formed local rap group the Carol City Cartel and began rapping in the mid'90s. (He took his rap name from Los Angeles drug kingpin "Freeway" Rick Ross, who ran one of the largest crackcocaine distribution networks in the country during the '80s and early '90s.) Ross had a brief stint on Suave House Records, former label of Eightball MJG, before he ended up on Miamibased SlipNSide Records, the label home of Trick Daddy and Trina.

During the early to mid2000s, he became popular and well known locally through touring with Trick Daddy and guestappearing on a few SlipNSlide releases, but didn't release any solo material until 2006. Once "Hustlin'" caught the ear of a few executives within the national industry, a bidding war ensued that included offers from Bad Boy CEO Sean "Diddy" Combs and The Inc. (formerly Murder Inc.) president Irv Gotti.

Nonetheless, Def Jam president and veteran rapper JayZ signed Ross to a multimilliondollar deal. The Miami anthem "Hustlin'" went on to receive gold status from RIAA in May 2006 and sold over a million ringtone units before the physical release of his debut album, Port of Miami. Released in August 2006, Ross' debut was SlipNSide's first project under the Def Jam partnership.

His debut album Port of Miami, was released in August 2006 and debuted at the top spot on the Billboard 200 album chart with sales at 187,000 units its first week out. Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone magazine predicted that it would be "the summer's biggest rap record". The second single was "Push It", which samples "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)", the theme song off the gangster film Scarface.

The music video for "Push It" was also modeled after the film. During that time, Ross made guest performances on two singles from DJ Khaled's debut Listennn... the Album: "Born-N-Raised" and "Holla at Me".

Port of Miami received Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America on November 8, 2006.