Port of Miami [EXPLICIT LYRICS]

Rick Ross

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 8, 2006)
• Original Release Date: August 8, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Label: Def Jam
• ASIN: B000FZET70
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #13,798 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Sometimes, if you put your hand on the rails, you can feel the train coming. It's in the air, on the tip of everyone's tongue. All there is to do is patiently wait. Every once in a while an artist comes along with the force of a natural element and the only thing you can do is get aboard or get out of the way. So, from the good people who brought you the Roc-A-Fella dynasty, the Snowstorm and the College Dropout, we'd like to introduce you to the overnight sensation twelve years in the making: Rick Ross.

You can't go into a club, get into a car or walk down the block without hearing the clarion call keyboards of Ross's earthquake of a debut single, "Hustlin'." It's the early front-runner for street anthem of the year. On one song alone, Ross has laid it all out there for you to see and hear. Over keyboards that wouldn't sound out of place scoring the last scene of Scarface Ross posits himself as the Alpha Hustler. The hustler as superhero. But, unbelievably, it's only a taste.

On Ross's debut LP, Port Of Miami, you are immediately immersed in a fully fleshed out world. As a member of the Slip-N-Slide (Trick Daddy, Trina) crew Rick Ross is part of a bubbling Miami scene that is sure to be making noise on Atlanta and Houston levels this year. But Ross's Miami is unlike any one you're gonna see on a postcard. Rick Ross's Miami is one where drug deals and dropped bodies happen in the shadows of Art Deco hotels and plush nightclubs. It's the luxury and the tragedy. It's an American Dream and an American Nightmare.

"I see this album in the tradition of Reasonable Doubt and Ready To Die," says Ross. "It's made to be a classic. It's made to make everyone stop and re-think the whole game."

That may sound like a heavy task, but Ross is up to the job. To snatch a phrase from KRS-1, many people know Rick Ross, yet he's known by few. Ross has been waiting his entire life to make Port Of Miami. He's been honing his craft as a behind the scenes man, ghostwriting (our lips our sealed on that one), and generally making himself a staple of the Miami hip-hop scene. But his sound isn't one confined to the bounce and bass that made the city famous.

"I rep Miami, the 305. But my sound goes beyond the city. You can hear everything from UGK to Jay-Z in my music. It's universal street music. There's no area code on it."

In hip-hop, in 2006, you have to be as big as the culture you represent. You have to be more than music, more than mixtapes, more than a fad. You have to be a movement. Rick Ross, in the tradition of Ice Cube and Jay-Z, is a rebel hustler. He's a renegade who gives you an inside look at how it really goes down in America's paradise. He gives a voice to those who have none. This summer, you're going to hear him loud and clear. Hop on board, or get out of the way.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Biting what's currently hot........, August 24, 2006

By	Solty (Louisville, Kentucky United States) - See all my reviews

Hmmmm....a Miami guy saying "I'm a Boss" in a Texas accent biting off Slim Thug, the real boss. Hmmmm....calling your click "Triple C Mafia".....sounds kind of like Triple 6 Mafia. Hmmmm.....your name is Rick Ross....sounds kind of like the old school producer Rick Rock. Hmmmm......rappin with the same voice and same subject matter (pushin coke) as another artist, Young Jeezy. This is a perfect example of what you call a cookie cutter MC. I give this guy another year before he drops off the map. I gave two stars because at least the beats on this album are super hot. It's just a shame a cookie cutter MC had to rhyme over them.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Rap has officially DIED, September 1, 2006

By	Jason Terrence-Darren Lee Jr. (Pullman, WA) - See all my reviews

Rick Ross's album has officially showed me that the genre "rap" is officially dead. This guy claims that Notorious B.I.G., Tupac and Ice Cube inspired him to become a rapper. Well, from listening to his garbage of an album, you wouldn't think so. Now, I don't want to sound too negative, but I can't help but be negative when I listen to this LP. "Port of Miami" is just like any modern "rap" album. All the lyrics are about cars, bitches, alcohol and drugs, and all of the lyrics sound like some six year old kid could have wrote. Jay - Z was noted to have discovered Rick Ross. I must say that I have lost a little respect from Jay - Z for bringing this crap into the public. While respected artists like Notorious B.I.G., Tupac and Nas tried hard to make people understand and appreciate black culture, Rick Ross has spitted in all of their faces and adds his name on a list of other artists that cripple and reinforce negative stereotypes of black people today. You should be ashamed of yourself Rick Ross. You have shown the world that it's okay to stereotype your people as drug dealers who don't respect women and who would rather have nice rims on your car then pay your child support. Lady's and gentlemen, rap is dead.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Far too reptitious for me.., October 24, 2006

By	Pablo - See all my reviews

I wanted to like this release. Some people may complain about the emergence of rappers whose only subject matter consists of cooking, chopping, and selling cocaine; I don't find it too troublesome. In fact, this crack-rap is more appealing to me than the likes of the bling-bling rappers who only talk about how their 'chain hangs low.' Yeah, these guys are glorifying horrible things, and never expose the consequences; yeah, these guys are also materialistic. At the same time, rhyming about coke can get tedious, but as long as it's done with style, it can never get old. Just look at Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... - that album was based around the drug-trade, and it managed to be one of the greatest hip-hop releases of any era.

Unfortunately for Rick Ross, where Raekwon and Ghostface were able to succeed with that classic album is an area Rick certainly can't touch; lyricism. Rae and Ghost had tight rhymes, and their views were far less linear than Rosses. They exposed the penalties of the dope game, even more so than they glamorized the lifestyle; for Rick Ross, it's all fun and games. Now, we all know Rosses story; he's a former crack peddler. He knows the ires of the trade from personal experience, so why does he have such a one-dimensional way of expressing his past?

Where Young Jeezy succeeded last year, Rick Ross fails. Jeezy at least has an undeniable charisma in his style; Ross seems to drone on, and on. Jeezy also at least switched up his adlibs; yeah, they got annoying, but not nearly as much as Ross says his own name, or the title of the song. I can't even remember anything from White House, because out of a four-minute song, Ross repeated the name of the track for nearly three minutes of the song. When he's not going along with his repetitious acts, his rhyming skills are average at best; and quite often, below average. He's not anymore complex as a lyricist than another rapper who shouts his name all the time(Who?), and he's got even less of said rapper's quirky charm.

I've read that Ross has been in the game for about a decade, but he still raps like a complete rookie. There's some hot production on here, yeah, especially on the "Hustlin'" single, and that's why I've given this album two stars instead of one. At the same time, Ross is clearly green, and needs much more seasoning. Could he get better with time? Of course. He has potential, he just needs to tap into it. He doesn't neccessarily need to expand his subject matter too much, but it'd be nice if he could get out some introspective tracks amongst the coke ordeals. Also, he needs to delve deeper into exposing the dope game, and reveal more of its ills than the glamor. Hustling maybe required for some people just to live, but no one wants to hustle forever; and no one wants to listen to someone rapping about one-sided hustling forever, either.