Rick Ross - The Perfect Day to Boss Up: A Hustlers Guide to Building Your Empire

Also by Rick Ross with Neil Martinez-Belkin

Hurricanes: A Memoir

RICK ROSS

WITH NEIL MARTINEZ-BELKIN

THE PERFECT DAY TO BOSS UP

A HUSTLERS GUIDE TO BUILDING YOUR EMPIRE

Rick Ross is an American rapper, songwriter, entrepreneur and founder of the Maybach Music Group. All ten of his albums have landed in the top ten of the Billboard 200, including five number one debuts. He has received seven Grammy Award nominations. He has worked closely with Jay-Z, Kanye West, Diddy, Drake, Lil Wayne and DJ Khaled, among many others. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Hurricanes is his first book.

Neil Martinez-Belkin is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Autobiography of Gucci Mane and the former music editor of XXL Magazine. He has written extensively about contemporary hip-hop for VICE, Apple Music, Mass Appeal and others. He lives in Boston.

Contents

THE FUNGUS WAS AMONG US

I was about to board my flight when the gate agent approached me and asked if I would mind stepping to the side of the line. At first I didnt think anything of it. I figured she was trying to get herself a quick selfie with Rozay, and who could blame her for that? Its not every day that the biggest boss shows up at your workplace.

Im sorry to bother you, Mr. Roberts, but I have to ask. Are you and your party planning on staying in Colombia for the next sixty days?

Now, I would love to kick off this book by telling you I was getting on a chartered jet to go procure a hundred kilos from a plug in Cartagena. But that would be a fabrication. I have to be honest. First of all, I was flying commercial that day, as I usually do. The PJs are nice for family vacations and romantic getaways, but when you fly as often as I do, the cost of flying private adds up quick. Flights are one of the few times Im able to get some sleep, so to spend all that extra when Im just going to be getting my beauty rest always seems like a waste of money. First class treats me just fine. Anyway, the real reason I was headed to Colombia was to see my dentist, Dr. Mario Montoya. He was going to hook me up with a beautiful set of coke-white porcelain veneers.

Did you say sixty days? I asked. Im getting my billion-dollar smile and then Im gone. You know Ive got places to be.

Oh... Okay... Well, if your billion smiles thing is an elective procedure, then we here at American Airlines strongly recommend that you consider postponing your trip. Due to the recent coronavirus outbreak, the United States may be temporarily closing its borders soon, and if that happens, theres a possibility you may not be able to reenter the country for a while.

I was confused. I was watching people scan their boarding passes and get on this flight. Then I realized we were the only Black people there. Everybody else looked Latino. This lady knew we werent Colombians heading home, and I appreciated the racial profiling. She had just saved me from spending the next two months stuck in South America. I told the young woman she had a bright future in the airline industry and asked her to help me and my team retrieve our checked luggage from the plane. I broke her off with a few dollars for her troubles.

I had been hearing things about the coronavirus for a couple of weeks, and a few of my shows had gotten pushed back because of it. Originally the plan had been to fly from Colombia to Puerto Rico, where I was scheduled to perform at the Afro Nation Puerto Rico music festival the following week. But two days before my flight to Colombia, the event got canceled.

Recognizing the national concerns surrounding Covid-19 and under the instruction of the Puerto Rican Government, the Afro Nation organizers have announced that with much regret, they will not be going ahead with the festival due to take place in San Juan next week. Customers will be contacted in relation to refunds with details on rescheduling to come. If requested, refunds will be processed within seven working days.

Instead of heading back to my house in Davie, I had my sister book a block of rooms at the St. Regis Bal Harbour. I was thinking Id treat my team to a few days of kicking it on the beach at my favorite hotel while this coronavirus situation got sorted out. Then Id be back on my way to see Dr. Montoya and get my new teeth.

Thats not how things played out. Over the next few days, it became increasingly clear that the coronavirus wasnt going away anytime soon. Whatever this shit was, we were nowhere near the end of it. The fungus was among us and it was just getting started.

The next morning, I got word that the iHeartRadio Music Awards, where I was nominated for Hip-Hop Song of the Year for Money in the Grave with Drake, would not be taking place. Then my Las Vegas residency at Mandalay Bay was suspended until further notice. Then the Funk Fest music festival in Orlando got postponed. Then Rolling Loud. At that point, I knew it was only a matter of time before they pulled the plug on my upcoming Feed the Streetz Tour. And sure enough, they did.

The health and safety of the fans, artists and staff are of the utmost importance during these times. We encourage everyone to comply with the directives of the local, state and national authorities to curb the rise of this very serious public health threat. We, along with our venue partners, apologize for the inconvenience but know that we are working tirelessly to provide all concertgoers with an unforgettable experience and safe environment.

Damn. We had just officially announced the tour, and I was super excited for it. It was shaping up to be one for the history books with an all-star lineup stacked with heavy hitters from the South: Young Jeezy, 2 Chainz, T.I., Yo Gotti, Lil Kim, Boosie Badazz and DJ Drama. And I was the headliner. Those shows were fitting to be so live and ghetto and project. I was looking forward to going city to city with those guys. That particular group was a crew of partiers, and wed all known each other for over a decade. Between the concerts and the after-parties in every city we touched down in, I knew we were all going to have a lot of fun and make a lot of money that summer.

One by one, all of my plans for the remainder of the year fell out. In the blink of an eye, my 2020 calendar had been wiped clean. This Covid-19 shit was serious.

Now that this fungus was affecting my pocketsmillions of dollars of expected revenue had just been taken off my tableI decided to educate myself on what exactly this coronavirus was. As soon as I started reading about the symptoms, I knew it was real bad. And I knew that because Id realized that Id already had coronavirus.

Two months earlier, on December 18, 2019, I had traveled to the Middle East for a pair of shows in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. Shout-out to Swizz Beatz for bringing me out there. From there I flew to South Africa, where I had three more dates lined up in Durban, East London and Mahikeng. But I didnt end up doing any of those shows. There was some issue with the promoters. Thats a story for another day.

In hindsight, I must have caught a case of the Covid on my way back to the States, because within a few days of being home, I was coming down with something. At first my symptoms were pretty mild. I had a slight fever and a dry cough. But as the days went on, my symptoms kept getting worse and worse, and by the end of the week, I was in rough shape.