Rick Ross never breaks character. Ever.
– Gotty
 
Rick Ross has been telling the world he’s a boss since the release of Port of Miami in 2006 (it’s also the title of track 7). Whether this was a self-fulfilling prophecy, or further proof that “faking it til you make it” produces positive results, Ross, through six albums, more mixtapes, catchphrases, and bass-heavy beats, became what he said he would. It may sound new age-y, but hey, a new age approach worked out for the Seattle Seahawks last season (Rick Ross might be a rap version Pete Carroll with Meek Mill as Richard Sherman, Wale as Percy Harvin, and even-keeled Stalley as Russell Wilson).
 
I don’t recall how long it took Tony Montana to become kingpin in Scarface, but it took Ross about 8 years (and counting) to fulfill, rather, become, his destiny. And isn’t creating and embodying a character to achieve success just part of being a self-made boss, anyway?
 
Rick Ross: The Self Help Blueprint
Ross the Boss has grasped the key to success: He used to simply refute reality, but now he transcends it.
– Jayson Greene
 
First off, Rick Ross shouldn’t even in this position. In a world where Jay-Z got at Prodigy for being a ballerina in elementary school, being a rapper who once worked as a correctional officer as an adult is surely more damning.
 
While Whitman once stated that man is full of multitudes, but Ross is only filled with one level: boss. Amongst then unconfirmed rumors of being an ex-CO and a feud with 50 Cent, Ross released Deeper Than Rap in April 2009. While the numbers themselves are impressive (#1 on the Billboard Charts with 158,000 first week sales), it was the album that began to turn critical perception of how we were supposed to judge the music of Rick Ross. And what did “authenticity” mean anyway, in an age of social media and catfishing? The metric used to judge a Ross album became whether or not we believed in the persona developed on each record, not whether the persona was “real”. He said he’s a boss. Is basslines, hi-hats and synths what a boss sounds like? If yes, hit download.
 
But Teflon Don, released in 2010, was the album that turned Rick Ross the rapper into Rick Ross the Boss. Reviews of the album describe it as “transcendent absurdity”, and use phrases like “his chimerical mythologizing is as stubbornly entertaining as anything James Cameron could cook up”. This was the album we, as critics, agreed to be in on the movie. Yes, Rick Ross did improve as a songwriter – but so did our ability to critically judge Rick Ross (we went with the flow). And of course, Twitter was there to amplify the momentum.
 
My favorite Ross album is Port of Miami, as music is so tied to memory. Hustlin’ was the summer anthem, and Push It, the first real song on the album, was an epic introduction to Ross as Tony Montana and The Runners’ Vice City synths. That album was also one of the last physical CDs I ever bought (*sniff*). But the album was also the creation myth – it was Ross getting let off the boat and touching down on Miami for the first time.
 
After all, there’s The Secret, Think and Grow Rich, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. There’s also Trilla, Rich Forever, and now, Mastermind. At heart, we’re all Rick Rosses – we want to be rich, we want to be bosses, and we want to “make big moves”. We tell ourselves we’re hustlers when we look in the mirror before work every morning…and then? Ross’ albums are Dale Carnegie lectures over a trap beat – he went through that, and one day, we can, too. Rick Ross came of age in the era of social media, but the message is timeless.

Selfie: noun, informal (also selfy; plural selfies), a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website
 
Who would have taken the greatest selfies in all of history? Would it be an artist like Michelangelo, a leader like Napoleon, or someone history completely forgot? In sports, I’m going with Ali. He had the drive required of a good selfie taker, plus a sense of humor. He traveled the world, which would show a diversity of locations. And he met a lot of interesting people in those interesting places. That’s the big three of taking a good selfie.
 
Out of musicians, I’d go with Miles Davis. We already see the restless intensity in his paintings that he would have brought to selfies. Plus, his devotion to boxing displays a concern with manipulating the human figure that translates well to the medium. Speaking of manipulation, my #2 greatest selfie taker of all time is Picasso. Outside of potential Cubism-inspired selfies that would change significance depending what angle you viewed it on your smartphone, he’d have the first selfies to get hung in Versaille.
 
But the greatest selfie taker of all time has to be Da Vinci. You could argue, as I often do, that his Vitruvian Man was the original selfie. And isn’t the Mona Lisa only missing a smartphone in her hand to be considered a selfie anyway? Through these “selfies”, Da Vinci explored new boundaries of beauty, truth, dimension, and proportions. Those are all the noble goals we strive for every time we’re stuck in traffic, pretending to look out the window, searching for just the right angle to Snapchat people we only know by avatars.
 
Selfie = the Linsanity of Words for 2013
 
“Um, drunk at a mates 21st, I tripped ofer and landed lip first (with front teeth coming a very close second) on a set of steps. I had a hole about 1cm long right through my bottom lip. And sorry about the focus, it was a selfie.”
– a post on Australia’s ABC Boards, September 2002
 
Selfie was announced at the Oxford English word on the year in 2013. They traced the word back to an Australian forum from 2002, spelled with a “-y”, which shows how all waves start with one pebble (and also shows how most good movements are started when people are wasted). And as linguist Judy Pearsall explains, “Australian English has something of a penchant for -ie words…so this helps to support the evidence for selfie having originated in Australia”. So that’s that.
 
Selfie had a slow rise to winning the championship for Word of the Year*. It was the most hashtagged word back in 2004 on Flickr, but never really broke through to the pop culture barrier until it got its reps in over the next 10 years. In 2013, the use of the word increased over 17,000%. The word also spawned other genres including welfie (selfie of hair), drelfie (drunk selfie), shelfie (a selfie of a shelf?), and bookshelfie (a bookshelf taking a selfie?).
 
*the 2012 OE word of the year was GIF
 
Important selfie movements in 2013 included the #SelfieOlympics, #And1Selfie, and…umm…
 
 
Ellen or Obama?
 
Ellen wanted to break the record for most retweets in Twitter history. The previous record was held by President Obama, with a tweet announcing his re-election getting over 780,000 thousand retweets over two years. So who would win – the host of the 86th Academy Awards, or the President of the United States? Well, Ellen, and it only took her about an hour (it’s up to 3.2 million retweets a few days later).
 
Sometime in between 2002 and 2014, a selfie stopped being about yourself, and more about where you were, and what you were doing. Now you have to take selfies with the Pope (752 retweets) or in outer space (979 retweets) for it to even register. Regardless of how high selfie stakes are raised, the conceit is the same: I was here for this moment. But on social media, these moments literally last forever.
 
And Ellen’s hosting was tailor made for social media, featuring the spontaneity of live TV, celebrities, and product placement. Pizza was delivered from Big Papa’s and Mama’s and handed out to the audience. A tip was collected with Pharrell’s hat, which Arby’s bought for $44,100. Ellen’s selfie included Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Kevin Spacey, and Julia Roberts – taken with a Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
 
It seems silly to ask if Ellen’s selfie is more important than Obama’s re-election. I mean, it is technically much, much, much more popular on Twitter, but that’s no real indication, right? After all, Jared Leto did mention Ukraine and Venezuela in his acceptance speech early in the night, but then pizza got delivered, and awards were handed out, and…you know. Ukraine or celebrities? Elections or awards shows? In 2014, that’s a decision we all made, not with our wallets, or votes, but with our retweets.

You had “Blurred Lines” and “Get Lucky” this summer. You were literally competing against yourself. What was that like?
– Joe La Puma
Pharrell belongs to the most high group of 2014: a Twitter Untouchable.
Lebron and his two rings, Jordan and his six rings, Peyton Manning and his record breaking offense aren’t immune to Twitter. Even Shakespeare would have got it on Twitter (“you didn’t write your own plays” and “Ben Johnson >>> Shakespeare”).
The Twitter Untouchables get the most rare commodity on social media: respect (Derek Jeter and Christopher Nolan, also Twitter Untouchables, for different reasons). And Twitter Untouchables also retain another rare quality of social media: mystery.
The opening paragraph of Joe La Puma’s recent Complex interview gets down to the our fascination, awe, and respect for Pharrell – for all of his songwriting, clothing designs, and fame, we hardly know anything about him. Even this interview, about his life views and creative process, only digs us deeper in the Pharrell rabbit hole. How do we supposed to reconcile quotes like:
The universe is going to continue to evolve, and the ultimate feat in that experience is the perspective of awareness.
Or:
God could be upstairs high-fiving E.T. and Tupac and they’re all laughing at it with a drink in their hands.
Joe La Puma, after Pharrell explains the malleable third dimension that unlocks life, interjects “that explanation is not how most people think”. So while Pharrell let’s us in his mind, he pushes us further away at the same time.
Regardless of what you believe of utilizing the universe’s energy to unlock different dimensions of the mind, his creative process is grounded in success. The Neptunes had their first #1 single in 2001, producing Britney Spears’ “I’m a Slave 4 U”. Since then, his (and The Neptunes/N.E.R.D) discography reads like a who’s who of 2000s pop culture. But he’s only released one solo album – 2006’s In My Mind, which received mixed reviews. And while we’re still not sure if anything before 2009 actually existed, in this post-Twitter world, marketing is the new album release.
Pharrell started the year by picking up four Grammys for his work with Daft Punk (plus his hat he wore to the event has 20 thousand Twitter followers). And with the release of his new album G I R L, plus the Happy Movement, 2014 could be Pharrell’s biggest year in terms of cultural impact. And that’s saying something.
Girls, Girls, Girls
On a fundamental level, it’s opinion that society is concerned with. Man’s getting dressed for what? Other dudes?
– Pharrell
Pharrell ran into controversy at one of his musical high points last year, due to the suggestive lyrics to “Blurred Lines”. Critics cited everything from gender roles to rape culture, which made the single the “most controversial song of the decade”. It was the most vulnerable moment in Pharrell’s public persona. The Neptunes production has always been sensual and pushed bounds of sexuality (which partly explains its pop culture success). But 2014 isn’t 2004 – hitting the wrong nerve takes on a life of its own.
G I R L is Pharrell’s response to “Blurred Lines”. He explained to journalists at a listening party that “there’s an imbalance in society…and it’s going to change. A world where 75 percent of it is run by women – that’s a different world. That’s gonna happen, and I want to be on the right side of it when it does”. Within that context, song titles such as Marilyn Monroe, and Hunter, which is written from
the perspective of a girl, along with cameos from Alicia Keys and Miley Cyrus, becomes his attempt at humanizing or empowering (or both) women. All on one of the most anticipated albums of the year.
For all the talk of creative process and genius, the success of this album might come down to something as simple and practical as how he treats the other sex. And while it no doubt features an inspired use of energy from other dimensions, with G I R L, Pharrell wants show he’s human, too.
 

Social media was supposed to revolutionize our most basic principles: how we talk to people, how we find information, and how mainstream media covers hip hop.

 

Well, two out of three ain’t bad.

 

Drake was on a roll at the start of last week too, getting Twitter and Facebook acclaim for laying to rest the Macklemore/Kendrick text apology during an interview for Rolling Stone (Facebook status updates included “I finally agree with Drake on something”). But as soon as he took one step forward in earning the neutral’s goodwill, he took one step back by tweeting his disgust that Rolling Stone replaced him on the cover with Philip Seymour Hoffman.

 

He apologized on his blog the next day, and retired from interviews on Twitter, saying music was the only way his message “gets across accurately”. But that directness is Twitter’s appeal for the artist in the first place. Plus, he breaks news on his blog, and his music already takes on a confessional tone. So why was Drake giving an interview to Rolling Stone, anyway?

 

And that was before Valentine’s Day.

 

The next day (Valentine’s Day), Ernest Baker released his interview with Rick Ross titled “I Had to Stop Interviewing Rick Ross Because He Can’t Handle Hard Questions: Longreads of Whatever” in which he was cut off by Ross’ handlers for wading into Reebok territory, as Ross continued to affirm his boss status. In fact, combined with Tech N9ne’s interview on Combat Jack in which he discussed how critics never understood the history behind his facepaint, it was a banner week highlighting the uneasy balance between hip hop artists and mainstream media.

 

So what is media’s role in hip-hop, in 2014?

Nipsey Hussle vs. Complex: The Question of Culture

 

As hip-hop, we’re gonna boycott Complex. We don’t need that. We can write about ourselves. We could develop our own outlet and we can cover our own stories. It’s like “No thank you. We don’t need y’all opinion no more.”

– Nipsey Hussle

 

But the Stone Cold vs. Vince McMahon of hip hop artist vs mainstream media was between Nipsey Hussle and Complex last fall. Nipsey was named on Complex’s “Top 10 Underachieving Rappers” list earlier in the year. When Complex reached out for an interview for Hussle’s $1000 mixtape project, he charged $10,000 for the interview (these tweets were free).

 

Nipsey ended up doing the Complex interview and articulated the inherent tension between hip hop and journalist: most journalists who cover hip hop are not from the culture. He asks, “who is an editor to have an opinion on ?”, and further clarifies the class divide, saying Complex covers hip hop “from the bourgeoisie perspective”. He uses the term “bourgeoisie” a couple times – the “bourgeoisie” analyze hip hop from a distance, using SoundScan numbers to determine what’s important. But those numbers don’t translate in Nipsey’s world.

 

The tension boils down to some basic principles of hip hop: authenticity and class struggle, with one eye towards the exploitation of rock and roll. It goes well beyond Complex vs. Nipsey Hussle, but the conflict was symbolized by (a lack of) musical output from Nipsey, which was the reason he was considered an underachieve in the first place. But his point does elucidate the symbolic importance of Drake on the cover of Rolling Stone. It was the reverse – hip hop on the cover of a rock and roll magazine.

Apologies Now

 

“Tough day at the office” – Drake

 

With no more tearful press conferences, apologizing in 2014 is much more intimate and personal. Macklemore apologized to Kendrick Lamar, and the world, through an Instagram pic. Drake apologized with a blog post. Straight from the artist to the audience (get rid of the middleman, as Nipsey would say).

Drake’s week didn’t stop there. He joined Terrence Ross on the court for Saturday’s All-Star Dunk Contest. And he announced (on his blog) that he and Outkast would co-headline OVO Fest in August. Mistakes are amplified on Twitter – but they only last for a moment, until the next tweet.