Popular rapper Rick Ross has won the legal battle against the use of the name ‘Rick Ross’, a case filed against him by the popular drug dealer Freeway Ricky Ross.
Ricky Donnell Ross popularly called Freeway Ricky Ross, the acclaimed original owner of the name Rick Ross lost his long-time name lawsuit to rapper Rick Ross at the Los Angeles county superior court on Thursday, March 29, 2012 – this being the second time.
In an interview with urban website allhiphop.com, Freeway Rick said ‘Basically they’re saying [I waited too long], I should have filed a lawsuit five days after I got out of prison’.
‘I feel that the law has let me down. I feel not only have they let me down, but they’ve let down the black community as a whole’, he expressed further.
Freeway Rick is a drug dealer who claimed to have sold $3m worth of illegal drugs a day and according to estimations, he exported several tons of cocaine to New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and other places, with more profit worth of $600 million.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1996 after being convicted of trying to purchase more than 100 kilograms of cocaine from a federal agent. His sentence was later reduced to 20 years and he was later released on September 29, 2009.
Since 2008, Freeway Ricky Ross has been protesting that Rick Ross co-opted his name and former lifestyle to make millions of Dollars.
Rapper William Leonard Robert now owns the trademark to the real name ‘Rick Ross’.
Freeway Ricky Ross has however agreed to move on; hoping to adjust his business strategy since ‘he can no longer use his own name’.
‘You have these people going around portraying us in an image that’s not what we are,’ I didn’t sell drugs so I could sit in everybody’s face, drive around in a Rolls-Royce and wear big gold chains. I sold drugs because I was poor, illiterate, didn’t know any better and had no other opportunities’.
No comments:
Post a Comment