Imagine waking up every morning knowing that someone is not only using your government name and life story, but also profiting from them. That's the nightmare Freeway Rick Ross, the former drug kingpin is living.
In his ongoing battle to wrestle his name away from the Miami rapper born William Leonard Roberts II, Freeway Rick was in a Miami court last week, to give his deposition along with Roberts in their trademark dispute over the name Rick Ross according to AllHipHop.
Freeway Rick initially filed a $10 million lawsuit in the United States District for Southern California against Roberts, Def Jam and Universal Music Group accusing them of copyright infringement and profiting off of his name illegally. The case was dismissed.
"In support of his trademark claims, Plaintiff alleges that his name was well known in the drug trade and by law enforcement segments of the urban crime, rap and black comity because he did business as Rick Ross, until he was arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated in federal prison," said the court. "Because this illegal activity cannot be used to establish secondary meaning, such allegations do not provide support for Plaintiff having a valid trademark for his name."
Freeway Rick appealed the case in state court and it is now moving forward.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Freeway Rick alleges Roberts was initially shook when he thought goons might be coming his way, but now that he sees Freeway Rick doesn't live his life that way anymore he's become disrespectful.
"[He] treated me as if I had done something to him," Ross said. "When he first came to me, he didn't know what position I was going to take, if I was going to send a word out to those young cats out in L.A. or not. That put a little fear in his heart. But now that he knows I'm not carrying it like that, he's a little more courageous right now. "[He] has my name tattooed on his hand."
Freeway Rick has turned his life around and doesn't like the message Roberts is sending kids.
"The first thing that I want to do is I have to help eliminate and erase the mindset that I helped to create," Ross said. "I know I have a lot of work to do, but the first step is to eliminate this guy from going around telling people how great it is to sell drugs."
The case is continuing.
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After being targeted by 50 Cent in a series of songs and video clips, DJ Khaled has refused to engage in a rap beef with the G-Unit frontman vowing to only "represent the music."The Def Jam South labelhead has decided to pass on the controversial rap beef with 50 Cent:"I don't deal with negative energy, it's a waste of my time and my time is valuable," he said in an interview. "I keep negative away and stay positive...At Def Jam, we promote music...We promote hit records. That's what I respect. I'm always going to represent the music; Rick Ross is gonna represent the music. If controversy comes with it, it comes with it." (MTV News)The Terror Squad associate has taken a cue from frequent collaborator Fat Joe who also recently suggested beef should be dismissed for music:"50 Cent just gotta make music," Joe said in an interview. "He does all these diversions and disses rappers to eliminate the fact that he's not really hot and relevant right now. So if two weeks ago we were talking about 50 Cent, what record or what would we really be talking about unless he disrespected Rick Ross...I'm tired of all these gimmicks and these games. This man's just gotta put out hit records. That's what we're doing...We making music. At the end of the day, we fell in love with hip-hop to make music and hit records." (Kendra G)Khaled was drawn into the recent beef between 50 Cent and Ross when 50 released a video of members of Fif's camp stalking Khaled's mother's house and place of work:"Yo, I got this lil' poem I wrote for DJ Khaled," 50 narrates. "Your car tires got stabbed out, now you know, I know where you be. I just wanna tell you what a psychic told me. I know where your mama house at. Now look, you can see. But I just wanna tell you what a psychic told me. I know where your mama work at, now look at her, asleep. I just wanna tell you what a pyschic told me. I'm not the kinda n*gga you should f*ck with, B. I'm special. I have less compassion than the average human." (ThisIs50.com)Ross, on the other hand, has disregarded suggestions to just focus on music with the release of a new 50 diss track:"N*gga you doing radio interviews, they don't wanna listen to you, they wanna hear you talk about me," Ross says in the track. "Bang Em Smurf. Queens. Forever. I appreciate the hospitality. Ricky Ross. I'm buying a loft there now. I'm building a studio there now...You haven't dropped a hit yet. You probably with [Dr.] Dre in the studio, booked up, busy. Anybody wanna get involved, you're more than welcomed...I wanna see the gorillas. I wanna meet 'em...Put your hit out on me, I'm ready." (WSHH)In my opinion: i don't care about when my fave rapper (50) raps about others but when i heard he mentioned his mom it just blew me away. After everything he went through his life I still can't believe he'd diss and talk about his mother....he doesn't even have a mother because of poisoning and no other rapper is dissing him bout that. Anyways I am always on 50's side.....I LOVE YOU FIDDY (NO HOMO), hope to meet you before the day i die....GOD BLESS.Post your opinions below [Make sure you add my page]
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