Judge Rules Rick Ross Entitled To Use Stage Name

“Roberts created a celebrity identity, using the name Rick Ross, of a cocaine kingpin turned rapper,” Boren’s ruling says, referencing the MMG emcee’s born name, William Leonard Roberts II. “He was not simply an imposter seeking to profit solely off the name and reputation of Rick Ross. Rather, he made music out of fictional tales of dealing drugs and other exploits—some of which related to plaintiff. Using the name and certain details of an infamous criminal’s life as basic elements, he created original artistic works.”

Billboard’s story reports that “Freeway” Ross’ original suit named Warner Bros. Records, Universal Music, and rapper Jay Z as defendants given those parties’ purported implication in the success of the God Forgives, I Don’t rapper.

This past fall, Ricky Ross leveraged an opinion that the Mastermind emcee is funded by police. “I believe that he’s being financed by the police union and keeps spreading bullshit to the youngsters, so they can keep filling up the penitentiaries cause he ain’t selling no music,” said Ricky Ross. “They keep playing him on the radio and keep putting out all these big, expensive videos, but he ain’t selling no music. So, somebody is shootin’ off money. And I believe that the police union behind it.”

In January of 2013, Ricky Ross spoke exclusively to HipHopDX about the drive-by shooting attempt made on the rapper using his name. “I’m not surprised that it happened given recent ongoings, when someone doesn’t understand the street rules they get confused and incidents like this can take place,” he said. “I’m still dealing with ongoing litigation about something as basic as using my name and identity, that should have been dealt with properly a long time ago. No ill will is wished upon anyone, but when you tell these stories about the streets you have to be careful. We covered it in more depth in the Power of the Name Rick Ross piece.”

Article Appeared @http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.26834/title.judge-rules-rick-ross-entitled-to-use-stage-name/

 

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