The Magical Mystery World Of Rick Ross: “How Low Remix”
February 3rd, 2010
Last week, I covered a listening party for Ludacris‘ KY jelly-opus, Battle of the Sexes. One of the album’s lone saving graces was the “How Low Remix,” featuring everyone’s favorite grizzly boss, Rick Ross. To fully unpack the power, depth, and semiotic intricacy of his vision, we must study his words.
“I’m so visionary/my women tend to vary.”
Novices might assume that “I’m so visionary” refers to Ross’s oracular ability to seize upon a previously unknown demand for obese, pathological ex-cop rappers. Wrong. In fact, it subtly alludes to Ross’s past life as the captain of an age of Portuguese Age of Exploration sailing vessel. A rival of Sir Francis Drake (or Sir Francis Drizzy), Ross was commonly known for his flamboyant all-white yachting outfits, his excessive usage of snuff, and for coining the term, “popozao.” At one point, there was a brief feud with Prince Henry the Navigator, who took “El Chefe’s” baby mama shopping for cumin and other spices at the Lisbon farmer’s market.
The latter half of the statement refers to Ross’ love of feminist literature. An aficionado of both cigars and Sontag, Ross’s videos are incisive spoofs of the misogynistic morays plaguing hip-hop culture. Scholars have parsed that his debut album Port of Miami, was loosely based off of Joan Didion’s seminal Miami. He is the biggest Willa Cather fan that you’ve seen thus far.
“Ice Cream Man/My Uncle Ben & Jerry’s”
What the Smoking Gun failed to uncover in their expose about Ross was his genealogical past. Related to Ben Cohen, via their shared relative, lips and hooves magnate, Abraham Ross of Long Island, New York, Ross’s creative sensibilities and prodigious waistline were forged during Burlington summers where he learned the art of manufacturing Cherry Garcia and glass-blowing. In addition to his mastery of the speed boat arts and polo, Ross attended Florida International University on a free-blowing scholarship, an affection that led to his early single “Blow”and derision from most of the members of Triple C’s.
