Rick Ross - Deeper than Rap

When first receiving this album, the first thing I noticed was his blinged out mafia style album cover. I had to laugh, as Rick Ross aka “THE BOSS” looked like a modern day ‘Barry White’ all pimped out with his white suit and manicured beared. For Ross the road to stardom hasn’t been as hard as other rappers and his rise through the rap ranks has some what surprised me. This is Ross’s third album release since 2006 and is quickly establishing himself in the ever-growing hip-hop scene.

‘Deeper than rap’ his latest piece and is easily to date the best music I have heard from Ross. Strangely enough though the steady improvement through each album hasn’t translated into sales or chart success. Even though this album is at higher calibre than his first two works (Port Miami and Trilla), Ross might find himself suffering the same fate as ‘Ja Rule’ and other alike. As nobody has ever managed to have ever a public feud with 50 cent and ultimately not have it cripple their career.

Music wise in all areas you can hear a small yet noticeable improvement in Ross’s skills, the beat production sounds solid all the way through, with not to much sheen to it. While the lyrics while not being ground breaking, I guess still represent ‘The Boss”. I think the major difference from this album is he finding out who his market is and really pleasing them. The first lead single ‘All I Really Want’ (with a hilarious film clip), which features ‘The Dream’, is targeted to the women and for the more commercial listeners and is easily one of Ross’s better tracks. The album in general I think will please old and new fans as it offers a lot of variety and depth, especially with the amount of featured artists. Hopefully the beef with 50 doesn’t stop to many more listeners because ‘Deeper Than Rap’ offers Ross’s best efforts thus far.