When Rick Ross sat down for an interview with The Breakfast Club on Monday (July 25), host Angela Yee asked the Maybach Music Group head honcho about possibly bringing women into the MMG family. His answer, while not exactly shocking, was still a sobering outlook on how he views female rappers. Around the 8:45-minute mark, he essentially admits he wouldn’t be able to keep his dick in his pants and with the money he’d invest in her career, would expect sex in exchange.
“You know, I never did it because I always thought, like, I would end up fucking a female rapper and fucking the business up,” Ross said. “I’m so focused on my business. I just, I gotta be honest with you. You know, she looking good. I’m spending so much money on her photo shoots. I gotta fuck a couple times.”
While undeniably crass, it paints a sad portrait of how women are often viewed in the Hip Hop space. So, with that said — let’s just get it out of the way. I’m a white woman from Omaha, Nebraska who writes about Hip Hop. And yes, my name is Kyle. I have interviewed everyone from De La Soul, Macklemore and Tyler, The Creator to Ice-T and Ice Cube. I’ve worked for Public Enemy’s mastermind Chuck D for the past six years. I write for Thrasher Skateboard Magazine, yes thatThrasher — the one that’s been covering skateboard culture for over 30 years.
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I penned The Source cover on Prince shortly after his passing in 2016. That issue made its way into the hands of Questlove and Spike Lee who both posted it on Instagram. (Maybe you’ve seen them.)
Despite my credentials, I’m routinely looked at like some groupie hanging out backstage or someone mistaken for the merch girl. Since I started writing, especially in the Hip Hop realm, I’ve always felt like I’m expected to establish my right to have a voice in the culture or immediately squash the idea that I’m there to hook up with one of the artists.
Accurate depiction of actual groupies & a journalist simply trying to get a story as portrayed in the film Almost Famous.
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Now that I’m married, it doesn’t happen as much as it used to, but a couple of occasions are permanently burned into my brain. One in particular taught me a valuable lesson. I used to book a lot of shows when I lived in New Mexico. I was once offered a door deal for a prominent Hip Hop legend, so naturally I took it. But the manager’s intentions were made clear when I found him in his boxers in my bed. After I snuck out and fell asleep at my neighbor’s apartment, I was lectured for an hour the next morning about how I should have “just been honest” about how I felt towards him. (Uh, I thought this was business.) After I got involved in a relationship, suddenly that artist’s guarantee went up to $10,000 the next time I inquired about booking him.
But let’s get back to Ross. This isn’t the first time his words have raised a few eyebrows. In 2013, he was heavily criticized for his lyrics on the Rocko track, “U.O.E.N.O.,” in which he described drugging a woman’s drink and taking her home.
“Put Molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it/ I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it,” he rapped.
In a tweet, Ross later explained he doesn’t “condone rape” and the controversy was due to a misinterpretation of the words. “Apologies for the #lyric interpreted as rape. #BOSS,” he said.
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“I feel like us being artists, that’s our job to clarify the sensitive things and the things that we know really need to be clarified, such as a situation like this,” he later told Rolling Stone.
Ross’ latest comments make it painfully obvious women are still terribly undervalued and continually hyper-sexualized in all areas of the music business. Yeah, that isn’t a big secret, but for Mr. Rozay to be so blatant about it is concerning.
One, does that mean there are no women working at MMG? Two, if there are, how safe do they feel in light of his comments? Three, how is a woman supposed to follow her dreams of being a serious artist or in my case, journalist, if we’re always looked at like another sexual conquest or vapid, obsessed fan?
We know how Rick Ross feels.
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If he’s this brazen about it, how many others out there are thinking like him? The pervasiveness of this train of thought is not only repulsive but also dangerous. At this point, it seems like it’s on other men to call out potentially toxic rhetoric from other men — lord knows we’ve tried.
