With the culmination of this most recent lawsuit and the fact that Fif’ is being forced to pay Lastonia Leviston $5 Million dollars for his part in her sex tape leaking as well as now filing for bankruptcy means that it has become official: 50 Cent has lost his battle with Rick Ross. It’s over. Now we can all go home.
50 Cent’s agitation of Ricky Rozay has served as one of Hip Hop’s longest running jokes. It was right up there with the prospect of Detox somehow leaking and finding Tupac alive smoking cigars in Cuba. How many nights have we all gone back and watched those “Officer Ricky” videos and laughed and laughed when everything seemed lost? Cheer is a powerful force.
The Beginning
It was a good time to be a rap fan and a human with the ability to guffaw when this beef came out of nowhere in 2009. Some say it started when 50 looked at Ross wrong at the BET awards. But all of us who are discerning saw the smoke rage into a fire when Ross said on “Mafia Music,” “I love to pay ya bills, can’t wait to pay your rent / Curtis Jackson baby mama, I ain’t askin’ for a cent / Burn the house down nigga, you gotta buy another / Don’t forget the gas can, jealous stupid motherfucker…” That came in the wake of the mother of 50 Cent’s child, Shaniqua Tompkins, fleeing her burning Long Island home. The gloves came off at that point, with 50 Cent first releasing “Try Me” and then continuing the onslaught by posting an interview on Thisis50.com where he gets Tia Kemp (Ross’s Baby’s Mother) to confirm the fact that Rick Ross was, indeed, a corrections officer.
Shoot Your Shot, Rick Ross
The hilarity then went viral, as “Officer Ricky” came into the Hip Hop imagination. The videos were classic rubs at Ricky’s fable of being a drug kingpin who became a rapper. They featured Rick, who in reality is a kind of mastermind, as a dullard double agent fibbing his way through life. It was funny. And we all needed to laugh at the time. It was the end of the decade, and we were all left with a “WTF” taste in our mouths. Unbeknownst to us all, Kanye would soon be sent into the rap desert because of young, porcelain looking Taylor Swift, Hennessy and the MTV awards. For some, this beef was all we had.
2009 was a rough year. The best album was arguably a mixtape in Drake’s So Far Gone. Sure, there were Rae’s OBFCLII and Em’s Relapse, but come on, the spotlight was on these two. It was a perfect showdown. A real gangster shot 9 times and come back to life against a person who took Hip Hop’s propensity for adorning fiction to new heights. Here’s the thing, even then it didn’t quite work out for 50. They released Deeper Than Rap and Before I Self Destruct that year, and while both albums had their strong tracks, they both also didn’t live up to the hype of the beef. To be fair, by all intents and purposes, Rick Ross won that beef simply because he survived. Perhaps he’s lucky he didn’t get Fifty at his most vitriolic, as Ja Rule had the misfortune of running headlong into that 50 and, well, the rest is history. Then the release of the sex tape and of “Pimpin’ Curly.” ‘My God, 50,’ we all thought. ‘You’ve gone hilariously too far.’
The Burial
For most of us, the lack of output caused the beef to fizzle. But it was, like a trusty Labrador retriever, always there for us when we needed it. At times, it would flare up. Like last year when 50 cut that photo to make it look like Ross and Puff Daddy were about to lip lock. Of course, just like high school, making fun of people publicly has real life consequences. Ms. Leviston filed a lawsuit against Mr. Jackson alleging that she was driven to the brink of suicide by the lambasting she took in the video. That’s understandable, and now this beef is more than dead. Now, not only is she owed $5 Million dollars, but also 50 Cent is filing for bankruptcy to protect the rest of his assets. He’s a smart, smart man. That sound you hear is this episode being nailed shut, and a little bit of laughter being sucked out of the whole wide world.
*This beef is survived by both 50 Cent’s and Rick Ross’s extremely successful careers, G-Unit, Wingstop, pears, and Lastonia Leviston.*
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.
How did Rick Ross win the beef, no way in hell did Officer Ricky win.
ross won haha yea okay
This beef been over no matter how much you don’t like Rick Ross he clearly won this battle. 50 dropped antics while Ross came with good music.
50 is a businessman!!
@Rozay ego tripping agent
Music. This shit ain’t music
Officer Ricky is the biggest fraud in hip hop period! Milli n vanilli are realer!
hiphopdx fucked this one up so bad haha its like some white old lady that listens to country tries to tell you something
50 is almost deadblock now.He’s loosin everything,can’t he just stop beefin with fresh minds and die with respect.
Hese so far from broke. Learn the facts. Chapter 11 is different from chapter 7. Ignorant bitch
Rick Ross is in prison 50 is broke I’d rather be broke than locked up so tell me again who won and oh yea 50 fucked his bitch!
Ross was lucky to survive this feud, still to this day dont know how he did it but he did it, other rappers careers have ended over much less
Fiddy exposed Ross for the fake that his
His album outsold Ross’s Deeper Than Rap album
Also, his Baby Momma put him on blast.
Bottom line is, Fiddy Won. Ross Lost. Case Closed
So, does dah mean 50 n rozay hv squashed de beef for real?
Fifty still has more way money than ross….he is still far more respected by hip hop fans and artists….the unit whooped the shit out of gunplay and made videos wearing his mmg chain….and that woman most likely wont get close to five mill from him……….how exactly did 50 loose this one?
you a real one
Even tho I never listened to a full Rick Ross album you gotta give it to him, that nigga won the battle. He took 50 out by working with everyone on of 50’s enemy’s and making hits with them. And he still standing you can’t say that for not 1 artist 50 had beef with BESIDES Game.
Fifty has not been relevant in Music for over 5 years. All he does is poke fun at people. If he made so much money from Vitamin water, why does he not have 21 million to pay the headphones company and that chick. All you internet gangster believe that these rappers were all heavy in the streets, selling drugs and robbing people. Rap is entertainment just like the movies. So, what if Ross fabricated his character? Would you rather be a former corrections officer or a washed up rapper who was shot 9 times, who has more debt than assets?
how old are you
ross still aint touched platinum tho LOL
50 cent won the beef……who ever thinks 50 is broke,the mothafucker dont understand hip hop…or we should say they dont know Fif
Fiddy won the beef after he survived 9bullets, so far fiddy is a top rapper. Even if u can say Ross won the beef but he can’t resist that Fiddy has fucked his son,s mother. Up until today G-Unit is the most respected group which was led by Fiddy and Fiddy is a good actor compared to Ross, Ross claim to be a player but Fiddy fucked his wife.
Ross was exposed as a fraud…50 still has respect of being real.. money or not people have ups and downs 50>ross
Every time I listen to a Curtis James Jackson III interview, I cannot help being reminded of America’s expanding and shameful **National Epidemic of Childhood Abuse and Neglect, Poverty**, that for more than two generations has deprived untold numbers of American kids from experiencing and enjoying a fairly happy American kid childhood with *Safe Streets* to travel and play on,
**Child Abuse and Neglect** that is primarily responsible for populating our prisons with depressed, angry, frustrated, undisciplined, unpredictable, sometimes suicidal teens and adults full of resentment for irresponsibly being introduced to a life of hardships and struggles.
**Early Childhood Abuse and Neglect** that often leads depressed, sometimes suicidal **(NY Times May 18, 2015 – Rise in Suicide by Black Children Surprises Researchers)** children to develop into depressed, angry, frustrated, unpredictable, sometimes suicidal teens and adults lacking empathy and compassion for others, though needing to vent their pent up negative emotions, often causing emotional and physical harm to peaceful people…instead of venting their anger, resentment and pain on the immature single moms and/or dads who introduced them to a life of pain and struggle by irresponsibly building a family before acquiring the practical skills, **PATIENCE** and means to successfully raise and nurture a developing young child who matures into a fairly happy responsible teen and adult.
*Black *(Children’s)* Lives Matter; Take Pride In Parenting; End Our National Epidemic of Child Abuse and Neglect; End Community Violence, Police Fear & Educator’s Frustrations*