Rapper Rick Ross is trying to dodge a bullet with his career after he was apparently caught in a lie about his former profession in law enforcement.
MTV
The rapper claimed an internet photo showing him as a guard was photoshopped. Now funny photoshop parody posters showing Rick Ross as a cop are circulating on the web. Click here to check out more Rick Ross parody posters at Illseed. Some of our favs are the "Roboboss" and "Miami Vice" parody posters. MTV spoke to Fabolous and the Clipse about the scandal.
Apparently desperate to distance himself from any affiliation with law enforcement, the rapper Rick Ross has recently denounced as fake photos purporting to show him in a former career as a Florida prison guard. But Department of Corrections (DoC) records show that Ross, whose raps detail the Miami gangster lifestyle and his supposed days trafficking cocaine, did, in fact, work as a correctional officer for 18 months. Ross (real name: William Leonard Roberts) was appointed a prison guard in December 1995 at a salary of $22,913.54, according to the below personnel record, which was provided to TSG by Jo Ellyn Rackleff, a DoC spokesperson. The rapper's social security number is identical to that of the jail guard. According to the official document, Ross was earning $25,794.34 when he resigned in June 1997. After graduating from the DoC training academy, Ross was assigned to the South Florida Reception Center in Dade County (the lockup is one of three statewide that serves as an intake facility for new prisoners). When a photo of a uniform-clad Ross surfaced last week on MediaTakeOut.com, the 32-year-old performer claimed to AllHipHop.com that unnamed "online hackers" put "my face when I was a teenager in high school on other peoples' body. If this shit was real don't you think they would have more specifics, like dates and everything?" He added, "Fake pictures are created by the fake, meant to entertain the fake." The photo, which you can find here, shows a 19-year-old Ross at a DoC ceremony (he was part of the department's 60th graduating class). He is pictured shaking hands with Marta Villacorta, who then headed the South Florida Reception Center. Villacorta, now the department's South Florida regional director, was identified by Rackleff, who examined the photo Ross claims was Photoshopped.
Rick Ross says he's laughing at the bloggers. Well, some bloggers certainly are taking liberties with the Miami MC's recent corrections-officer scandal . Since TheSmokingGun.com reported earlier this week that the rapper was once a prison guard, some people have been posting Photoshopped pictures of Ross on various police-movie posters. There's Ross' head on RoboCop's body, Ross' head replacing Martin Lawrence on a fake "Big Momma's House" poster, Ross' face replacing Sylvester Stallone's on a faux "Cop Land" poster — you get the picture (no pun intended). Meanwhile, the message boards have been heating up with talk of rap's Biggest Boss. Some people are confused, while some have vilified him. This is the same guy whose music they were pumping just two weeks ago. His music is still just as banging as it was prior to this scandal, and from the two freestyles he just dropped, his skills have not diminished. So the question is: With so many people having bought into Ross' 'hood-legend persona, has this dance in the rumor mill created a rift between Ross and his fans that can't be patched up? source
