Rick Ross

Rick Ross (born William Leonard Roberts II) was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in 1976 and raised in Carol City, Florida. He attended Albany State University on a football scholarship and later worked as a correctional officer for about a year and a half in the mid-1990s.^[1]

He signed with Def Jam after a bidding war, and his 2006 debut Port of Miami reached number one on the Billboard 200, as did Trilla and Deeper Than Rap. In 2008 he founded Maybach Music Group, whose roster has included Meek Mill, Wale and French Montana.^[1]

A 2008 report on his past as a correctional officer sparked controversy over his kingpin persona. In October 2011 he was hospitalized after two seizures in one day, and in 2018 he was hospitalized again after being found unresponsive at home.^[1]

His 2012 mixtape Rich Forever, widely seen as a bridge to the album God Forgives, I Don't, became one of the most downloaded hip hop mixtapes of all time.^[2]