Rick Ross: Deeper Than Rap (Album Review)

Rick Ross - Deeper Than Rap

Rick Ross - Deeper Than Rap

Rick Ross' Deeper Than Rap is an excellent display of quality hip hop music. Rick Ross combines his "Boss" like style along with a plethora of R&B artist collaborations to create a solid album. Ross starts the album with one of the most untraditional beef songs any rapper has ever made, attesting to his true boss status. The song “Mafia Music” is a heated beef shot back at the entrepreneur 50 cent, who has been taking shots at the Boss. “Mafia Music” definitely was the best way for a boss to respond to childish beef plays. He shows who the bigger man and superior artist was in this beef through his word play and style on this track. He summed up the album with the tracks “Valley of Death” and “In Cold Blood” with more shots at 50 Cent, but once again it was another classy, boss-like, beef track, which shows Ross’ style as a rapper.

Then the Boss brings another classic song, “Maybach Music Part 2” which is a collaboration with some of the greatest hip hop artist in the game right now, T-Pain, Kanye West, and Lil Wayne and produced by The Justice League. This song, as do many other hits on the record, has some excellent features. Almost every track on the record brings another excellent feature (mainly a proven R&B artist) that brings great flavor and class to the Boss’ album. Other notable features include John Legend (Magnificent), Nas (Usual Suspects), The-Dream (All I Really Want), Robin Thicke (Lay Back), Foxy Brown(Murda Miami) Trina (Face), Avery Storm(Rich Off Cocaine), and Ne-Yo (Bossy Lady). The single Magnificent was an excellent way to display the musical quality of the album, the instrumentals and production of this song was superb, and the addition of John Legend took the song to another level. The production on the album is quality, but there is a large lack of diversity as Ross plays into the common {insert R&B hook] and [insert Rap Verse related to hook]} method of making a hip hop song. Ross does step out of the bracket on only a few songs on the entire album, but none the less the album is high quality music from start to finish.

Overall this album is a great listen and is a definite must buy for anyone who really respects and enjoys quality hip hop music. Solid production, excellent features, quality verses, and much anticipated response to a heated hip hop beef.

If you have heard the album, tell people how you feel about it, but remember...
KEEP IT 100