With a stage name taken from a drug kingpin, William Leonard Roberts II, better known as Rick Ross, is the founder of the Maybach Music Group label. He was born in Coahoma County, Mississippi and raised in Carol City, Florida. Ross graduated from Carol City Senior High School and also attended Albany State University in Albany, Georgia. He was discovered by legendary music mogul Tony Draper and was signed to Suave House Records. He eventually signed to Def Jam Recordings through the Slip-n-Slide label.He debuted with Port of Miami in August 2006. It debuted on the Billboard 200 at the top spot and sold 187,000 copies in its first week. Port of Miami also received Gold certification on November 8, 2006 by the Recording Industry Association of America. Trilla is Ross's second album and was released in March 2008.
It also debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 and its first single “Speedin” peaked at number 121 on the Hot 100. In MTV News' “Hottest MCs In The Game” list Ross was featured in the fourth spot.Released on April 21,2009, Deeper Than Rap is Ross's third studio album and the first released by his own label, although it was distributed under Def Jam. It was also his first album to debut at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. Teflon Don was released on July 20, 2010, debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 chart and selling 176,300 copies during its first week.
Teflon Don also received some international attention and ranked on multiple charts.Rick Ross's unnamed fifth album is currently being worked on. Ross stated to MTV's Sway Calloway that he wanted Dr. Dre to produce a track on it. Six Rick Ross mixtapes were mixed by DJ Kronik of Poe Boy Entertainment:”We Are The South 2.5″ in 2006, “Maybach Music”, “The Black Flag Prequel”, “Boss is Back: Freestyle Kronikles 2”, and “Way Mo Trilla” in 2007. The mixtape “Way Mo Trilla 2” was also mixed by DJ Kronik and released in 2008.
Other Rick Ross mixtapes include “Way Mo Trilla 3”, released in 2009 and three Rick Ross mixed tapes released in 2010. These include “The Timeless Audemars Piguet Collection”, “The Albert Anastasia EP”, and the “Carlo Gambino” Rick Ross mixtape.
