1.) Holy Ghost — — 4/5
2.) High Definition — — 3.5/5
3.) MMG Untouchable — — 3.5/5
4.) Yella Diamonds — — 4.25/5
5.) Fuck ‘Em — — 4.25/5
6.) London Skit
7.) Rich Forever — — 3.5/5
8.) Triple Beam Dreams — — 4.5/5
9.) Mine Games — — 2.5/5
10.) New Bugatti — — 3.25/5
11.) Keys to the Crib — — 3.25/5
12.) Last Breath — — 3/5
13.) I Swear to God — — 3.75/5
14.) Off the Boat — — 4/5
15.) King of Diamonds — — 3.5/5
16.) Ring Ring — — 1.25/5
17.) MMG The World is Ours — — 3.25/5
18.) Party Heart — — 2.75/5
19.) Stay Schemin’ — — 3.5/5
Track One: Holy Ghost feat. Diddy
The mixtape starts off with a track with Diddy?! Luckily there aren’t any verses by him. The beat does the song justice, as does Rozay’s ever growing lyrical talent. He’s came a long way since his Port of Miami days and it shows. Rick Ross does a magnificent job at putting you in his shoes. He paints quite the boisterous picture of himself and this song is no different. Ross puts some emphasis on the final word of each verse, which I thought was a good touch from the typically predictable rapper. The beat, like most Ross tracks, is bass heavy and thick – so it doesn’t disappoint. One of my favorites: “My teacher told me that I was piece of shit / Saw her the other day, drivin’ a piece of shit”
Track Two: High Definition
I really really really liked the intro with the Mike Tyson interview excerpt. Really liked. The beat doesn’t really hit me like a usual Rozay track. He manages to show off some of his best wordplay on the whole tape, but this isn’t a typical party atmosphere track, which honestly, was a downfall for the song. It lacks the giant chorus, bragging about an ungodly amount of money, instead it’s about killing people… I always enjoy rowdy ass songs, I just wish that this one had a beat to back it up. “Duct tapin’ niggas in the name of drug dealin’” and “Diamonds on my neck, call it the ghetto’s guillotine” are just two of the song’s awesomely violent lines. Again though, if this track had a beat that made me feel like Ross was capable of murder, I’d be so down for it. Did I mention that I liked the Mike Tyson intro?
Track Three: MMG Untouchable
The first thing that hits me with this track is definitely the beat, more specifically the bass. In a car, this shit hits very hard. The song is just a freestyle, no hook, no second verse, just an outro; an outro that requests the listener to raise the volume on our speakers. Noted. Ross has a few good lines, nothing mind blowing, but nonetheless entertaining, “Just beat another charge, made ‘em drop that case / My lawyers goin’ hard, a nigga versus the state.” Overall, the track is a bit short, but then again, it is just a freestyle.
Track Four: Yella Diamonds
The beat instantly makes me think of some of the more ridiculous Rozay tracks (“Free Mason”, “BMF”) and then I heard Birdman chirp in somewhere in the background during the intro and then I knew we had something special going on. Ross ends 32 bars in a row with the word “nigga.” This song gets so over-the-top at times, I can’t help but love it. One of my favorites, “You wanna live, make an offer, nigga” and my definite favorite four bars…
You know they talkin’ home invasion, nigga
Seeing your daughter scream can be very persuasive, nigga
First question, where the safe at, nigga?
All in your woman face, fuck up her make up, nigga
Track Five: Fuck ‘Em feat. 2 Chainz & Wale
Ughhhhhh, the beat has a definite dub step vibe and it’s good. Instantly found myself bobbing my head. And then the hook comes and I’m ready to start jumping people. And then I hear the best yell in the game right now… “Two chaaaaains!” This is the kind of track that I want to hear when I put on Rick Ross. There isn’t anything that screams conscious hip hop, but sometimes it’s better to just to sit back and be entertained. 2Chainz is as sophisticatedly ignorant as ever. Wale throws out some shoe, sports and jazz references. Fuck ‘em!
Track Six: London Skit
Nothing to review.
Track Seven: Rich Forever feat. John Legend
For the title track, Ross recruits Grammy winning R&B singer John Legend for the hook and a bit of an intro. After my first listen, the beat and the way Ross went about his verse reminded me of Drake’s “Thank Me Now.” The last few bars of the first verse, Ross changes up his flow and strays away from the typical drug trafficking, shit tons of money lines and trades them for women and shoes. The DVLP produced beat sounds a little conservative for Ross and a bit bland all around. What Ricky Rozay is saying though, I actually like a lot. The idea of being rich forever as opposed to anything else is something that most people dream of and it’s nice to hear a not so conscious rapper rap about it. Really though, everyone seems to be praising the hook by John Legend, as for me… It’s good but it honestly just sounds like every other hip hop hook that he’s on.
Track Eight: Triple Beam Dreams feat. Nas
Rick Ross featuring Nas… I was definitely shocked when I first read that, but sure as shit, Nas rips right into his verse after the brief intro, not wasting any time. Nas shows off (When doesn’t he?… And why wouldn’t he?) on a few of the bars here. He definitely has no problem keeping up with Ross’ self painted Mafioso persona. I loved the alliteration on “Picturing piping out the seats of a Pathfinder / Powerful pursuit for pussy, cash to flash diamonds.” It’s safe to assume that Ross intentionally saved his best verse for this track. His subject matter may not change much, but what he’s saying remains entertaining. The beat wasn’t much, it certainly sat back seat to the verses and hooks; which was kind of surprising when I saw that J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League produced it. Oh well, I can’t expect Premier on every beat.
Track Nine: Mine Games feat. Kelly Rowland
Rozay gets a little serious on us with this track. So serious in fact, he says “On my R. Kelly, girl I’m ‘bout that foreplay” I don’t mind the switch up from drug kingpin to the gentle, affectionate Ricky Rozay, but its pretty apparent that Ross is out of his element. The song as a whole sounds cliché as shit. Kelly Rowland’s hook didn’t help out much. Actually, I really didn’t like her part. The hook felt disingenuous and she certainly didn’t sound like a great singer here; there was a reason that Beyonce was the breakout star…
Track Ten: New Bugatti feat. Diddy
He’s back for more! Bringin’ the extra hard Diddy for the track! Luckily Diddy was only talking about his bank account and not telling people he was going to catch bodies or anything truly unbelievable like that. I’ve never been impressed by Diddy’s flow, here it sounds (much like all of Last Train to Paris) like a straight rip off of Kanye West, who doesn’t necessarily have the best flow either. I had a tough time deciding if I liked the beat or not. There’s an undertone of it that I loved but I still ended up undecided because of the rapid drum cymbals that sound like a stock drum machine. As far as Rozay goes… He’s still ordering crab legs with heavy butter.
Track Eleven: Keys to the Crib feat. Styles P
I know he’s just giving his pal a shout out while rhyming, but the thought of Rick Ross in a Lotus is nothing but funny. During my first playthrough of this tape I had it on shuffle, and this was the second to last track I heard. Unfortunately, by that time I was a little burnt out on the tracks that didn’t really explain anything except how rich Ricky is. So I made an extra effort to go back to this song after a break to give it a proper judgment. Thought I thought the beat was a little lacking (blame The Inkredibles), Rick has some pretty good lines in his verses. “I’m a guru in the kitchen, whippin’ mass appeal.” It was great (and refreshing) to hear LOX vet Styles P who I thought outshined Ross and had some pretty cool lines, “Biggie on the stereo, seven digit flips / This is the scenario, something goes wrong, it’s a burial”
Track Twelve: Last Breath feat. Meek Mill & Birdman
Money, girls, ballin’, cars… Birdman needed to be a feature on this track. After the intro, Ross opens his verse with “I got a house around my neck”, highlighted with “Brother took all your clothes, whip, sneakers, and ice.” Meek Mill claims the second verse, once it was over, I completely forgot that he was even on it; sorry homie. Ross drops another 12 in between hooks before we get to the only persona in rap that actually contends with Ricky… Birdman. Nobody said Birdman was a lyricist, but what he does do is… What he does is… He manages to…
Track Thirteen: I Swear to God
I don’t know why, but I have a soft spot for Ricky Rozay any time he includes “God” in his hooks. Anyways, Beat Billionaire does his best to emulate a Lex Luger beat, but falls just short of doing so. (Really though, you MUST do this: Play the first ten seconds of this track and then play the first ten seconds of “Off the Boat”… Compare) Rozay’s hook brings the song’s value up by a lot. Ross’ ability to brag is miles ahead of most other rappers. It seems that in the majority of his songs, he boasts about a net worth, I would really like to know what his net worth actually is. Uh, anyways, this track is fun, it’s more of the same Rick Ross that you expect to hear. If Lex Luger did this beat and it didn’t sound virtually identical to “Off the Boat”, this could have been another banger.
Track Fourteen: Off the Boat feat. French Montana
Holy shit, yes! All of the elements to a successful Rozay song are here: the title, the out of hand intro, “Testify on my nigga, I’mma blow up your house”, Lex Luger production, and the best lyrical content imaginable. French Montana’s verse was on point, “I done counted a dollar, then I counted a million / Then I looked up to God, like what the fuck is this feeling?” Although French does a decent job, I may have preferred to have heard 2Chainz here. Ross drops a pretty standard Ross verse, I was hoping for an absurd amount of coke references, but instead we got only a few mixed with some money and guns, so I’ll take it. But apparently, Ross doesn’t drive on Thursdays.
Track Fifteen: King of Diamonds
Somebody call the Brinks truck. Repeat that a few times and you’ve got me ready to pull a Town on fools. That intro line, along with the beat got me so pumped up and ready to burgle, I was so excited to see how ridiculous the song could get. But the level of ridiculousness didn’t come back. Sure, there were some lines that were fun and boisterous, but nothing that matched the level of criminal outlandishness that the “Brinks truck” line offered. “I’m so rich, I mean I’m so rich.” If the song was more about armored car heists and less about the already established amassed wealth, this could have easily been my favorite track on the whole tape.
Track Sixteen: Ring Ring feat. Future
Yes! The voice behind “Tony Montana”! Future! This shit sucks. I wanted to turn the song off the second I heard Future’s mumbling ass gargle out the hook. Ross could be delivering some of his best lines but I’ll never remember them because of everything else that this track offers. Fuck you.
Track Seventeen: MMG The World is Ours feat. Pharrell, Meek Mill & Stalley
Ross’ verse was good! He was doing something that I’ve never heard from him before, but when it was over, I just wanted him to keep going. I took it as him telling a story of his come up but he just stopped at the second chapter. And he didn’t come back to finish it. As the features, Ross delivers us Pharrell, Meek Mill and Stalley. Each one of the feature verses sounded lazy to me. Meek Mill says, “Puffin’ purple getting stoned, trying to take the pain away” in the middle of a verse about how he’s made it… So… What pain does he speak of? Stalley’s verse actually got good about halfway through, but then petered out and went back to forgettable shortly after. If it were me, I would have had just Pharrell on the hook and Ross alone on the verses telling his story.
Track Eighteen: Party Heart feat. Stalley & 2Chainz
Background music for when the party is over. That is exactly what I think when I hear this track. The synths are cool, but for Rozay? Ross does his standard excessive bragging, but I’m still raising an eyebrow at “Me and Meek bone the same chicks.” Stalley gives a forgettable verse, 2Chainz has some lines in his verse that I’m almost positive that he didn’t even understand. I wasn’t surprised at all when I found out that Chuck Inglish produced this track, as he’s usually pretty good at making background music. And really… What the fuck is with this hook? I hope Ricky Rozay the drug overlord decides to axe this type of shit from his next album, God Forgives, I Don’t.
Track Nineteen: Stay Schemin’ feat. Drake & French Montana
The “dawg” in the hook doesn’t help out and the knock off Kid Cudi-esque “Stay schemin’, niggas tryna get at me” (which is apparently a sample from an unreleased Nas track?). Hook aside, it’s obvious that this track was intended to showcase Drake. Who is rumored to be taking shots at Common. I won’t lie, I dug some of the lines, especially the opener “It bothers me when gods get to acting like broads” but really though… Come on… I am a Drake fan and I really wish he’d knock this shit off. Is rolling around with “Oliver North” supposed to intimidate Common? The flow on his verse really isn’t bad, but after listening to Take Care, I can’t take verses like this serious from Drizzy. And oh yeah, French Montana has a verse at the end of the track.
I ranged from hating to loving parts of this mixtape. One thing that I love about Rick Ross is his ability to get you feeling his lifestyle. There are times on some of the tracks where he really made me feel like I’m in a robe, on a boat smoking a cigar with a duffle bag full of coke on the floor. And of course, what is a Ross release without the mass amount of hate he gets from the usual hip hop head? When I look at it, or listen, I relate it to films. Where a Nas or MF Doom release could be a Best Picture nominee, Rick Ross could be more like Die Hard or Heat. Ross to me is a drug kingpin that is the ideal antagonist for the plot of an action movie. This tape isn’t all good however; obviously I hated Future and disliked Kelly Rowland. If there were five less tracks and maybe just two tracks that don’t focus around Ross’ wealth and more about actual acts of crime, I would be addicted to this shit. But hey, this is a mixtape… An introduction, if you will, to his next LP, which if he trims the fat and has a few more focused tracks could be the best “action album” of the year.
Final rating: 8/10.
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