Rick Ross is no stranger to controversial lyrics – last year he lost a Reebok sponsorship because of them – but for his new album “Mastermind,” he”s trying to get ahead of the bad press. He”s also dropping new videos at a rapid pace. Below, watch the video for his single “Nobody,” featuring Diddy and French Montana, and a video for his freestyle “Oyster Perpetual.”
With “Mastermind” now streaming in full on iTunes – ahead of its March 4 release date – Ross” verses on the song “Black and White” have already raised some eyebrows: “Forbes dot com, I'm the Teflon Don / Too close to a n—a as a motherf*cking bomb / Trayvon Martin, I'm never missing my target / Bitch n—as hating, tell me it's what I'm parking.”
The rapper explained via email to Vibe that he”s attempting to pay tribute to the South Florida teen who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman: “It's so important that today, on the two-year anniversary of the death of Trayvon Martin, we never forget that tragedy. I”m never going to let the world forget that name. In my song 'Black and White' off Mastermind I say, 'Trayvon Martin, I'm never missing my target.' There I'm reminding people that if you're a black person or a person of any color for that matter in this country, you have to be accurate, whatever moves you make, stay accurate.”
Ross” lyrics on the 2013 track “U.O.E.N.O.,” which boast about dosing a woman with the drug molly, led to Reebok dropping him as a spokesman. He eventually apologized and removed the verses from the song.
Rozay reprises the theme of gun violence for his “Nobody” video, which starts with the audio of a 911 caller who reported a 2013 drive-by shooting that targeted the rapper. The video for “Oyster Perpetual” is a little lighter – and begins at the one-minute mark after a teaser for “Nobody” – with Ross and friends living it up in Vegas.
Listen to Ross and Kanye West”s “Mastermind” collaboration “Sanctified” here.