Rick Ross is set to drop his eighth full-length studio album Black Market Friday and of course, the MMG Boss continues to wet people’s appetites until release. This means causing a greater stir by taking shots at Lil Wayne, Drake, and Diddy on “Color Money.” Produced by D.Rich, the track was allegedly inspired by Plies run-in with an angry fan that ended up making the internet rounds several months ago. Is it an effective diss or does it go the way of Meek Mill’s “I Just Wanna Know?” With that in mind, we have DX Features Editor Andre Grant and Senior Features Writer Ural Garrett deliver their thoughts on Rozay’s gorilla chest thump.

Does Rozay Get His Point Across On “Color Money?”

https://youtu.be/lz8Y1LVWAXk

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Andre: Like any good leader, Ross has stepped out in front to defend his comrades from rap-harm. He’s late, in Meek’s case, and seemingly attacking Lil Wayne out of nowhere makes little sense, but Rozay rarely allows what’s happening to color what he wants to happen, so there’s that. That said, there are two lines of real note here: “‘My lil homie made a million on his girl tour / We back to back and down to whack a nigga unborn” and “So run Forrest got some shooters and they dying too / I got more money than that pussy that you signed to.”

To be clear, according to Forbes, Lil Wayne is worth about at least 3 times what Ross is worth at 100-million-plus to 28 million. And I’m not sure about the “run Forrest” line because Drake seems like a hyper-aware super villain of the Internet, clouding our thoughts with catchy, emotionally resonant lyrics, all the while running up on his former partners in Houston if that kind of thing is to be believed. We’re not sure if Meek made a million on Nicki’s tour, either, and I’m also not sure how to feel about whacking someone’s unborn. I mean, damn, that’s harsh Ross. Let’s leave the innocents out of this. As far as short form disses go, this doesn’t rank up there with the greats like Jay Z’s, “I’m about a dolla / What the fuck is 50 Cent?” Nor does it compete with LL’s “99 percent of your fans don’t exist” line from his epic comeback against Canibus. But it does the job. As a retort to one of the biggest, most powerful emcees in the game it’s measured but still fairly venomous. As a stepping in on his artist’s behalf, it’s a nice gesture.

Look, personally, I think Meek can take care of himself just fine. I don’t think he’s down for the count forever and I don’t think either “Charged Up” or “Back To Back” were lethal enough to end anyone’s career. Especially since “Hotline Bling” has everyone talking about that track and not the befuddled non-comebacks, Funk Flex reference tracks that mysteriously disappeared, and the latent dime dropping by DJ Drama’s former other half. What we can conjecture is that MMG is gearing up to throw some disses at the Cash Money and OVO star, and maybe this warning shot was the beginning of that setup. Meek does have a mixtape coming out soon, and Wayne needs a kick to get the fires back burning.

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And, of course, that little shot at the end too, Puff. I caught that too. Ross has been talking greasy for a while now, and I look forward to more shenanigans and hopefully some good enough out of the bawse.

Ural: Since God Forgives, I Don’t, there’s been an utter inconsistency with Rick Ross’ musical output as Mastermindand Hood Billionaire sort of just came and went without much notice. Despite how solid his Black Dollar mixtape was, seems like it didn’t help traction with the upcoming Black Market album. Meanwhile, one of your top recruits earns 2015’s most embarrassing moment by getting “bodied by a singing nigga.” So, what does he do to build buzz for what’s possibly another subpar album? Ross accomplishes that goal through sending shots at the nearly impenetrable fortress of Drake and his mentor/label boss Lil Wayne. Being completely honest, it’s fairly understandable why “I Just Wanna Know” sucked so badly. “Color Money” doesn’t even feel like a diss record, but more of a failed defensive measure. Like Meek Mill’s failed diss, this also comes a little too late.  

Making lame references to Drizzy’s “Back To Back” or even that one hilarious Plies situation where the Florida-native yelled the titular phrase before being body slammed are confusing deflections at most. Then there are the technical aspects  of “Color Money.” Rozay spits in this weird cadence that fights the fairly lackluster production. Great diss records should be clear, concise, understandable and flat out disrespectful. “Color Money” didn’t have either as it doesn’t work as an effective diss nor standalone track. Plus, it’s fairly difficult taking any threat from Rick Ross serious considering his well-publicized background.  Forget Drake and Weezy though. What’s up with the “Balling more than Puffy and em” line considering the Ciroc king served as executive producer for his last two albums? At best, it’d be nice to hear a response from any of the targets. 

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Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones.

Ural Garrett is a Los Angeles-based journalist and HipHopDX’s Senior Features Writer. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.