Rick Ross is a point of contention among Rap music fans. He
has been criticized for a lack of authenticity and street credibility since
2008 when photos of a young Ross working as a correctional officer surfaced. Those images conflict completely with the drug
kingpin of Miami image that Ross has built for himself, going as far as to
adopt the name and characteristics of real life Los Angeles drug trafficker “Freeway”
Rick Ross. Despite the arguments of authenticity, Ross has become one of the
largest figures in Rap music. With each album he has built a finite image of a luxuriant
lifestyle with a cinematic scope that could easily soundtrack a film about the
rise, and eventual fall, of a major cartel boss.
The two years since Rick Ross released his last album,
2010’s Teflon Don, have seen the
rappers reach and presence within the game grow. His Maybach Music Group
imprint label has acquired new talent, signing Ohioan backpacker Stalley, R&B
singer Omarion and rapper everyman Rockie Fresh, as well as released two
compilations, Self Made Vol. 1 & 2.
Earlier this year MTV named Rick Ross the hottest MC on their annual list, and
he released his Rich Forever mixtape
to much critical acclaim. With his stock rising, Ross has capitalized on the
moment and dropped a summer blockbuster of a fifth album, God Forgives, I Don’t.
The album opens with the Maybach Music Group signature tag
followed by a prayer spoken over a thunderstorm back dropped be a string
arrangement. The intro abruptly ends with the sound of gun shots and the album
opener “Pirates” begins with a rise of horns and strings over top a trunk
rattling base bounce. Lyrically it is the typical Rozay fare; he raps about
wealth and dealing while placing himself as the modern Notorious B.I.G. and
reincarnation of 2Pac. However, he achieves a few memorable lines like, “Any
nigga wan' rumble, somebody hand me a shovel / Gotta silence the lambs, get on
my Buffalo Bill”, and these moments are peppered throughout the album. Unfortunately
the growth in instrumentation has not been met by a lyrical growth.
The next track, and possibly most anticipated, “3 Kings” featuring
Dr. Dre and Jay Z continues the layered instrumentation; piano keys are
supported by a back and forth drum beat and bass plucks. Neither guest feature
rises far above the lyrical bar set by Ross; Dre’s bars were more than likely
written by Ross. Jay Z delivers the highlight of the track, beginning strongly
with a few lines about his daughter, “Millions on the wall in all my rooms / Niggas
couldn't fuck with my daughter's room / Niggas couldn't walk in my daughter's
socks / Banksy bitches, Basquiat”, but ends with a few lines about still being a
dope boy despite his wealth and fame.
This is followed by “Ashamed” which creates a bit of a dichotomy.
A funky bass line carries a soulful croon while Ross laments his experience
within the coke game. But what complicates this song is the fact that Rozay
admits that, “Until then I’mma be a d-boy, I’m ashamed to say”. For a rapper
that has spent four albums glorifying drug dealing through simplistic coke raps
it is difficult to understand how or why he would be ashamed of this fact. The
first verse of “Hold Me Back” makes a similar detour in the typical Ross
message. These moments could be seen as a bit of growth in character, but they
instead are lost in the opposing view point expressed at every other moment on
the God Forgives.
The fifth track and fourth installment in the “Maybach Music”
song cycle features Ne-Yo on the hook and Ross rhyming solo. Past Maybach songs
have been notable for their guest appearences: the first featured Jay Z, the
second Kanye West, T-Pain and Lil Wayne and the third featured T.I., Jadakiss
and Erykah Badu. “Maybach Music IV” is the weakest in the pack and lends
credence to speculations that Rick Ross is only as good as the contributors he
surrounds himself with. Again we are faced with the same raps over a breezy
beat from production collective extraordinaire J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. The beat
saves the track and is one of the highlights of the album, sounding like a beat
heavy theme song for an 80s cop show, think an updated Miami Vice.
J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League also produces the next track on the album, “Sixteen”
featuring Andre 3000.
“Sixteen” is built on the concept that the standard 16 bars
for a song are not enough for either Ross or Andre to express themselves over airy
instrumentation, fluttering guitars and keys, supported by a strong clapping
beat. Ross waxes about wealth, weaving big names into the punch lines. “Sixteen”
is quite possibly Ross’s most inspired moment in all of God Forgives; he brings together Eisenhower, John Coltrane, Eric
Clapton, Old Dirty Bastard and Scottie Pippen. Even with the strong showing though,
Ross is not able to outshine his feature. Andre 3000 drops memorable line after
memorable line and once he is finished spitting “Sixteen” sounds like an Andre
3000 featuring Rick Ross which is only reinforced by Andre carrying the hook. A
few of his standouts lines are, “Summer '88, or was it '89 / Or was it winter-time,
ah, nevermind / I'm in my room, booming / Drawin' LL Cool J album covers with
Crayolas on construction paper”, “I don't budge, don't want much, just a roof
and a porch / And a Porsche, and a horse and unfortunately / But of course an
assortment of torches that scorches the skin, when they enter / Intruders,
whose tutors did a lousy job / How's he God if he lets Lucifer let loose on us?”,
and “Hence, why every time we dine we eat until our belly aches / Then go grab
the finest wine and drink it / Like we know which grape and which region it
came from / As if we can name 'em, hint hint, it ain't, um, Welch's / Hell just
fell three thousand more degrees cooler / Ya'll can't measure my worth / But
when you try, you'll need a ruler made by all the Greek gods”.
“Amsterdam” is a solid but slightly unmemorable low key Rick
Ross track, but is difficult for any song to follow the 8 minutes of “Sixteen”.
Placement wise “Sixteen” may have served
a better purpose at the end of the album. It takes at least a track to get the
hook and the funny singsong breakdown at the end out of your head. “Amsterdam”
would stand solidly anywhere else on the album but is truly lost behind the
shadow cast by its predecessor. Unfortunately the track that brings listeners
back is the return to form that is “Hold Me Back”, which finds Rick Ross at his
most ignorant on the chorus. The song is all menacing synths, tinny drum
machines and trunk shaking bass. However the first sixteen bars introduces
another deferment of the typical Rozay message similar to “Ashamed”. Before
getting to the typical rhymes about money and cars, Ross speaks about the poverty
that causes many to enter the dope game. Again Ross, for a moment, turns away
from the luxury of the lifestyle and instead presents an honest portrayal of
the lifestyle. Then there is the repetitive chorus that despite its annoyingness
finds Ross harnessing an emotional depth in his voice. As he repeats the lines
of the chorus he voice begins to crack and stress, putting emphasis in his
tone. Unfortunately this new found emotional versatility could not be more
wasted on “Hold Me Back”.
At this point in the album Ross hits a bit of a rut. There
is “911”, which is the typical ode to a high performance luxury car and “So
Sophisticated” featuring Meek Mill which is the albums most definable club
banger. The song is lyrically a testament to the awesomeness of Ross and Meek.
Meek’s verse is the highlight of the track with his flow switching to a double
time about mid verse and then back. The album then digs itself a true ditch
with three consecutive songs featuring three different R&B singers and only
Ross: “Presidential” featuring Elijah Blake, “Ice Cold” featuring recent MMG
signee Omarion and “Touch’n You” featuring Usher. The last two tracks are both
songs directed towards the ladies while the first two tracks seem be placed
just to build to “Touch’n You” which is also a single.
Unfortunately the sequencing of the tracks highlights the
wrong song. Of the three, “Ice Cold” is the strongest track. “Presidential” is
Ross rapping the typical over a standard beat that is highlighted by some
doo-wop vocals from Elijah Blake. “Touch’n You” is the standard Rap slow jam. “Ice
Cold” finds Ross treading similar territory, but he crafts an image of a woman
that is much more befitting to the image he has crafted for himself. By
forgoing R&B stereotypes, like the ones found on “Touch ‘n You”, Ross crafts
an ode to a lady that could truly hang with him, while Omarion’s hook is
soulful and catchy. The run of songs for the ladies is capped by “Diced
Pineapples” featuring Wale and Drake. Though the song is forgettable, Ross
makes the correct decision of putting Drake where he belongs, singing on the
hook.
The album fails to recapture much magic after “Sixteen”.
Ross returns to the typical instrumentation and the three song series of songs
dedicated to the ladies just get monotonous. However, on the last track “Ten
Jesus Pieces” featuring Stalley, Ross recaptures a bit of the spark from the
beginning of God Forgives. The
elaborate instrumentation with layers of strings and horns returns over a
melodic beat. Ross waxes about the highs and lows of the lifestyle over a jazzy
beat. Stalley finishes up the track; he starts by paying homage to the rap
greats that came before him then backing in to a bit of biography before
dropping a few lines that show the influence Ross may be having on his career, “I
remember bumping Mac 10 and that deuce on the corner / Scraping up for a
sandwich and a soda / Now my strength is up and I'm dangling chains off my
shoulders / But no Jesus piece on mine, cause at times I feel ashamed / For the
reason that I rhyme / And they say, because I'm Muslim I shouldn't think about
the shine / Or even put it in a rhyme / It's better things I could talk about
or put my money towards / But for now, I'mma wear these ten chains and floss”.
God Forgives, I Don’t
does represent an amount of growth in Rick Ross, the rapper and the image. The
album continues his streak as having a great ear for beats. However, lyrically
Ross fails to rise to the occasion. Though Ross has never been a great
lyricist, the growth in maturity of the beats should be equally met with a
greater lyrical prowess. Though he has his moments in particular Ross delivers
some of his best punch lines; he is at times out shined by the music that
should be accompanying the raps. Though the ornate beats do show some cracks,
they also create a new cinematic scope to the music.
If Rick Ross’s albums followed a story ark, his debut Port of Miami would be a struggling
hustler at the beginning of his grind, his sophomore Trilla and third album Deeper
Than Rap would be a slow grind to the top, while his fourth record Teflon Don is the moment of reaching the
top. God Forgives, I Don’t represents
a Don exploring the limits of his fortune: all Dionysian excess of liquor, women,
expensive clothing and imported cars. And in every way God Forgives represents this gluttony of wealth from the production
to the features. This is even further reinforced by the recent addition of “The
Untouchable Empire” preceding Maybach Music Group on album covers. However just
like a Don at the top, there are highs and lows.
The album suffers to what can only be boiled down to poor
sequencing. “Sixteen” stands as a juggernaut at the center of the album and the
songs that trail it fail to gain traction. The four song succession of “Presidential”
to “Diced Pineapples” all feature R&B hooks, and for which three are
dedicated to ladies, create a rut in the album. The songs would work better
parsed throughout instead of clumped into a single block. When listening to
each song separately though they fair a bit better but at times come off as a
bit monotonous. Despite God Forgives, I
Don’t’s flaws, it will do little to detour Ross’s climb to the top of the
rap game because the album in many ways matches much of the hype surrounding
it. The album sonically shows a level of profundity that reinforces the visuals
that has been a constant in each Ross album.
3, Ross needs to step up his lyrical game.
Finally the video for "Power Circle" from the recently released Maybach Music Group compliation, Self Titled Vol. 2. "Power Circle" features Rick Ross, Gunplay, Stalley, Wale, Meek Mill & Kendrick Lamar.
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