Rick Ross is a Country
Yesterday outsized rapper Rick Ross (twitter handle: “Mastermind”) tweeted two pieces of exciting news at once: firstly that he had landed “in the beautiful country of Africa” and secondly that the anticipated release of labelmate Wale’s album “The Gifted” was getting a lot of buzz. At least two things didn’t make sense. How has Ross (no relation to AIAC’s blogger of that name btw) not figured this thing out for himself yet? We know he’s already been to at least three African countries — South Africa, Gabon and Nigeria. And even then, why didn’t Wale, whose parents are Nigerian immigrants to the US and who is probably (?) traveling with Ross, intervene to prevent the man with the dollar signs in his name from thrusting his foot so forcefully into his mouth? In any case, Twitter did not waste time in ridiculing Mr Ross. Below we’ve listed some of the responses to Ross’ gaffe; they range from writer Teju Cole, comedian Trevor Noah, to assorted fans of the man who calls himself “Da Boss”. See if you can spot the theme that emerged.
Just landed in the beautiful country of Africa..I can tell you that the world is excited for #TheGifted
— Mastermind (@rickyrozay) June 24, 2013
@Wale Rick Ross said Africa is a country and you’re African, did you correct him?
— Midnight (@BeeYeezy) June 25, 2013
@AfricasaCountry Ross is a large man. He can’t just land in one of your puny countries, there’s bound to be spillover.
— Teju Cole (@tejucole) June 24, 2013
@tejucole @AfricasaCountry If he landed in Lake Victoria, how many countries would flood?
— siddhartha mitter (@siddhmi) June 24, 2013
As big as he is, Rick Ross should know the difference between a continent & country.
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) June 24, 2013
You can’t blame Rick Ross for thinking Africa is a country. He’s bigger than Sudan and we still think he’s a person.
— Robin Wood (@_wangwe) June 24, 2013
Someone take a wild guess at which African country Rick Ross has just landed in? Don’t say Jamaica please.
— Mbasu Tweets (@ItsBuddhaBlaze) June 24, 2013
Of course, if you want premium-quality scorn you have to ask the Nigerians. The music video Rozay shot in Lagos in September met with the frostiest of receptions from the townspeople. The place to go, as ever, was the comment section of Linda Ikeji’s blog (we blogged about it at the time).
“My prayer,” wrote one reviewer, “is that lightning will strike Rick Ross and hailstones will wipe out his entire family even to generations yet unborn.”
“Dis one wen fat like balloon,” concluded another. “Dirty he-goat.”
The only saving grace for Rick is that his wasn’t even the barmiest “landing in Africa” tweet by an American musician. He’s going to have to try much harder if he’s going to take that title off Lady Gaga.
I AM IN AFRICA WE HAVE NOT LANDED YET BUT I THINK I SAW A GIRAFFE ALTHOUGH IM PRETTY SURE IM SEEING THINGS BECAUSE IM SO EXCITED!!!! ahh!!!
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) November 27, 2012
* Elliot Ross contributed to this post.
