Say Hello to Rick Ross

http://www.esquire.com/print-this/rick-ross-drug-dealer-interview-1013?page=all

by kitcar • 13 years ago

127 65 13 years ago

bonemachine2• 13 years ago

Meet Gary Webb, the Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist who committed suicide in the wake of the public tar-and-feathering (and financial impoverishment) he endured as his reward for bringing Ross and his exploits to the attention of our great nation:

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb

derwiki2• 13 years ago

Damn, ".. Webb was found dead from two gunshot wounds to the head, which the coroner's office judged a suicide." Two self inflicted shots to the head sounds intense.

Sessions• 13 years ago

That made me double-take. That people accept it at face-value as a suicide seems a little bizarre to me, given the subject. "Oh, well, the coroner's office said so."

taternuts2• 13 years ago

I kind of glossed over that when I read it...but two gunshots to the head? What are the chances that from that range he missed so badly that he was able to pull the trigger again?

wavesounds2• 13 years ago

It was probably the CIA

ericd3• 13 years ago

Wow, it sounds like he got railed by the Reagan administration because he uncovered and reported that the govt. was shielding inner city drug dealers as a way to protect funding for Nicaraguan contras after Congress outlawed direct funding of the contras. That's pretty crazy.

jebblue2• 13 years ago

I read, "Webb investigated Nicaraguans linked to the CIA-backed Contras who had smuggled cocaine into the U.S. Their smuggled cocaine was distributed as crack cocaine in Los Angeles, with the profits funneled back to the Contras.".

So I guess there wasn't enough cocaine being flooded into this country from Columbia; we needed a complex plot involving the CIA, the Contras, the Nicaraguans, Los Angeles and a supremely risky money laundering scheme operating in reverse.

bonemachine2• 13 years ago

More directly he got railed by his own employer -- the once highly respected San Jose Mercury News -- who was getting railed by conservative punditocracy (which at the time included the Reagan administration as a proper subset).

Alex3917• 13 years ago

And because he made it to web 2.0 before dying, you can even read the comments on his obituaries, e.g.:

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/12/14/3719/5652

jmtame• 13 years ago

I mean, don't quit your day job or anything but if this type of thing interests you, check out Rick Ross and some other major drug dealers in this documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxRVhgbVN9o

derwiki2• 13 years ago

"How to make money selling drugs" also has a bit on Rick Ross: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1276962/

mschuster91• 13 years ago

Stuff like the Webb episode or the sting drug deal set up by the DEA is class A food for conspiracy theoretics all over the world.

Enticing someone to do a drug deal should be illegal.

andyhmltn2• 13 years ago

Indeed it should. In this case, he was selling a LOT of drugs. But I seem to remember a story (maybe someone can get the link as I can't think of it right now) where they sent an undercover woman cop into a school.

A boy ended up falling in love with her and she persuaded him to get her marijuana. When he did, he was arrested. The kid didn't even smoke it himself, he was just hopelessly in love with her.

aaronbrethorst3• 13 years ago

To be clear, this is 'Freeway' Ricky Ross, not Rick Ross the rapper (who actually faced a lawsuit from the real Ross over the use of his name).

http://m.rollingstone.com/music/news/judge-drops-rick-ross-n...

colmvp• 13 years ago

Not going to lie, I was wondering why something rap related and not named Rap Genius got onto the front page of HN.

jere2• 13 years ago

Really ya'll? This is hinted at in the first sentence and explained fully in the second paragraph. Not to mention the photo is of the original Rick Ross.

ianstallings• 13 years ago

Thank God. "I eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the same damn time" fake Rick Ross is of no interest to me. He talks up drug dealing and other idiocy, even though he was never a drug dealer or gangster of any kind, while the real Rick Ross talks about the tragedy, the reality, of being involved in drugs and the streets and how it ruined his life and many others.

datalus• 13 years ago

Ruined is a subjective matter. It ruined his life for a time but it sounds like he'll be remembered more so than the majority of us here.

o0-0o3• 13 years ago

Neither Rick Ross should be glorified. In fact, it might be fun to watch them fight to the death during the halftime of the superbowl...

smtddr• 13 years ago

Preempting anyone else: Remember what I said the other day... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6441795

Every single time...

iliiilliili2• 13 years ago

And yet again you jump to conclusions involving race. Somebody says Oakland is dangerous, `oh you're putting African Americans down'. Another person states you shouldn't glorify a `criminal', you think it's because he's racist. Would you have posted that if Rick Ross had been White. Of course you wouldn't have. People like you, the hyper pc that will find racist connotations in every negative comment, like Al Sharpton, make everybody seem like a bad person for not being anti-white.

andyhmltn2• 13 years ago

In fairness to the guy, he is doing a lot of good now. He served his time and from what I can tell from his appearances on The Joe Rogan Experience, he is a nice guy.

smallegan• 13 years ago

He clearly has the entrepreneurial hustle.

bluedino• 13 years ago

I have a theory that cocaine, and later crack cocaine, were really the downfall of the United States from the late 70's to late 80's. It wasn't Reagonmics, it wasn't the Japanese. All the white collar (and a lot of the blue collar) guys were all doing powder cocaine, and all of the rest of the blue collar workers and the unemployed were all doing crack. Crime got worse, business got worse...

aaronbrethorst3• 13 years ago

http://www.orthocuban.com/2011/09/baby-boomers-and-the-crime...

contingencies3• 13 years ago

The initial sudden drop in rising crime rates coincides neatly with personal computing and games consoles, and the final smackdown is delivered with the popularisation of the internet.

muraiki2• 13 years ago

An article that was on HN 8 months ago puts forth evidence to support that the rise and fall in violent crime follows the introduction and elimination of leaded gasoline. It sounds strange but every single country the researchers have studied exhibited the same phenomenon. Even matching lead contamination at the neighborhood level fits with crime maps.

Article: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-li...

HN Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5006368

busterarm2• 13 years ago

Considering that cocaine has been with us since the mid-1800s and saw other periods of high (ab)use, I think it's safe to say this is a false assumption. The decline of cocaine between the '30s and '60s makes the cocaine boom of the 80s seem like more of a problem than it was. In fact, cocaine pretty much built the entire city of Miami; it had a massive positive effect on the economy.

There is _always_ some fad drug ruining lives and society hasn't collapsed yet. For every wasting addict that you see there are dozens->hundreds more functional people using the same stuff.

jacobwcarlson• 13 years ago

I have a theory that cocaine, and later crack cocaine, were really the downfall of the United States from the late 70's to late 80's.

Ok, then do science and report findings. Or find studies that back up your theories.

contingencies3• 13 years ago

1980s crack epidemic? How about just epidemic. Coke is virtually free in some parts of Los Angeles.

420365247• 13 years ago

In the documentary Cocaine Cowboys, he has a large part where he describes his role with us officials to smuggle coke into the usa.

mbrutsch• 13 years ago

I just want to know where to get the t-shirts.

codyb2• 13 years ago

My thoughts exactly. I'd definitely send him a 100 for 10 of those. He seems like an awesome person everyone could learn from no matter his part in the crack epidemic. I mean the guy learned to read while behind bars and found the hole in the law he needed to become a free man again on his own. That takes drive. That's impressive.

iliiilliili2• 13 years ago

He explains his story in one of the best drug documentaries I've seen: ``How to Make Money by Selling Drugs'' (don't let the title fool you).

I watched it on YouTube, if it's available in your country, please do too.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1276962/

westicle• 13 years ago

Pretty fascinating that this guy's life story was essentially stolen by the rapper Rick Ross, who has made a very healthy career out of the persona.

Just an example of lyrics seemingly directly drawn from the life of Freeway Rick Ross:

http://rapgenius.com/Rick-ross-hustlin-lyrics

chjj• 13 years ago

Pretty fascinating that this guy's life story was essentially stolen...

If that interests you, have a look at the real 50 cent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin_Martin

jere2• 13 years ago

Heh, interesting.

To be fair, the rapper 50 Cent deserves the title a lot more than the rapper Rick Ross deserves his. He actually was a crack dealer and he was shot 9 times.

wavesounds2• 13 years ago

My friend met this guy and told me all about this a few months ago and I totally thought she just bought some random dudes BS ... but wow was I wrong. This should be a movie.

dmn757• 13 years ago

I didn't read the article yet, but some further reading/listening for those interested:

-'Freeway' Rick Ross on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast: http://vimeo.com/41214597#t=123

-Rick Ross, the rapper, was actually a correctional officer before his rap career took off: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Ross#Correctional_officer_... http://i.imgur.com/r2hYgO0.jpg

icpmacdo• 13 years ago

the stuff you should know podcast just did a episode on crack and talked a lot about Freeway Ricky

http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts/crack-works/

nikatwork• 13 years ago

Back in the day, Ross would offer the same deal with crack cocaine — to start you out, he'd give you $100 worth for free and you could sell it for $300.

So - he was a pioneer of the freemium model then.

nrser• 13 years ago

no, he's actually extending credit - 'fronting' the product. he would loan someone an amount worth $300 in small end-user sales, for which the person would owe him $100 that they could pay back after selling it.

freemium would be letting people sample small amounts of the stuff and/or for a limited time, then making them pay when they want a larger amount or to keep doing it. my DARE class in elementary school told us that drug dealers would try and hook us like this, but i'm 29 and i'm still waiting for my free samples.

roel_v• 13 years ago

No, what he did would today be called 'microfinance', the organizing of which is a favorite pastime of today's royals and philanthropists.

Theodores• 13 years ago

Somehow I learned of the real Rick Ross through the fake Rick Ross - I actually sought out the 'everyday I am hustlin' track on YouTube and, a few clicks later, there I was reading the legend on Wikipedia etc. Hence, sometimes to some people imitation really is the 'sincerest form of flattery'.

I am surprised the real Rick Ross made it onto Hacker News, what next, how the 'CIA invented rap music just to keep the black man down?' - that too is a great 'what if?' urban myth...

cromulent• 13 years ago

There was a pretty good Planet Money podcast with him a couple of years ago.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/05/05/135991890/a-former...

qq66• 13 years ago

Fascinating article, but seems better suited for Longreads than Hacker News.

Say Hello to Rick Ross

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