Rick Ross enjoys his personal achievements

Imagine you were born in a poor province town of the sunny Florida, right near the ocean. When you come to the capital, beautiful expensive cars pass you by everywhere all the time, luxurious yachts and splendid liners are seen in the ocean, but this world is not available to you. At the moment. For you realize that even a small portion of talent, your personal charm and, the most important, a great deal of persistence can take you out of this poverty. Of course dreaming of getting rich and successful you will probably follow the slogan ‘the ends justify the means’ and perhaps it won’t be possible to get involved in the creative work at once. So releasing his debut album Port Of Miami rapper Rick Ross already had an experience of not a very legal activity of drug dealing behind his back. The drugs theme has not only become the main theme on the debut record but is also present on all the artist’s albums. This year Rick Ross releases his fourth work Teflon Don, on which he once again tells us of his life rich in the events and of his wealth which the success has given him – generally speaking, he continues the good old southern rap school traditions and enjoys his personal achievements.

Teflon Don almost entirely consists of collaborations

It goes without saying that Rick Ross is fond of singing with other artists – he started his career like that and it has become an inseparable part of his musical vision. The only song without any guest star on the record Teflon Don is the opening track I'm Not A Star. Ross attempts to seem modest on it, but he doesn’t do very well because it turns out really hard to disguise his star status – his voice sounds incredibly weighty and impressively. A collaboration with Jay-Z follows up, Free Mason, and is one of the album’s highlights but far from the only one – a melodious arrangement, contagious samples and vivid verses of both rappers deserve praise. Tears Of Joy performed with Cee-Lo pleases with a complicated beat and memorable chorus, and a guitar solo refines the song at the end. The third part of Maybach Music III is definitely the best one of all, not only because of T.I., Jadakiss and Erykah Badu joining Ross on it, but also due to its monumental arrangement with orchestra samples. Perhaps, the longest composition Live Fast, Die Young featuring Kanye West, who is by the way one of the producers on Teflon Don, can be considered the album’s central moment – it does not only unveil Rick Ross’ philosophy but musically it is a track of a very high quality, too. Ne-Yo’s vocals refine the single Super High, also a worthy number, whereas Trey Songz and Diddy add emotions on No. 1. The record closes with the track All The Money In The World featuring Raphael Saadiq on which Rick Ross once again expresses his opinion on rich life’s illusionary attractiveness.

A balance between proud self-confidence and the never-ending search of truth

Whenever success comes to you, all the energy spent on its achievement must be restored which occupies some time. This may be the reason why Rick Ross’ first three albums were all connected with the drugs and street life themes, and present quite a monotonous sequence in the respect of lyrics. Luckily for Ross’ fans he has finally lost the necessity to tell drug dealers’ stories because this question is not of paramount importance in his life for quite some time now. The protagonist of compositions on Teflon Don is a rich successful artist enjoying his possibilities, thinking often of things that are really important in life. These tendencies could be traced on the previous record Deeper Than Rap and are fully realized on this album. The arrangement are faultless throughout Teflon Don – rich in samples, soft and melodious, in beats harmonizing with verses, they add a special flavor to the songs that can be found only on the best hip-hop collections. Thus Rick Ross has once again confirmed his starry status preserving the balance between his proud self-confidence and the never-ending search of truth.

Alexandra Zachernovskaya
06.08.2010