If you’re a “Boss,” and you get fired, were you really a boss in the first place?
That’s something that Rick Ross (born William Leonard Roberts) is probably pondering now that he’s been dropped as the leading pitchman for Reebok's newly renamed Classic division.
Ross didn’t need any more problems, considering that he has a whole nation of affiliated gangs running up on him. But that’s beside the point; Ross getting thrown into Reebok’s trash can is really his fault to begin with.
On the song, “U.O.E.N.O.” by Rocko, Ross rapped a verse as a featured guest on the track, boasting, “Put molly all in her champagne/she ain’t even know it/I took her home and I enjoyed that/she ain’t even know it.”
Then, when women’s empowerment group, UltraViolet, took offense and started its own movement to get Reebok to take action against Ross for his blatantly offensive words, the Bawse tried to flip the script, before eventually apologizing – on Twitter, no less.
First, he said:
Then, he followed up with:
But let’s look at the logic here, for a brief moment, because Ross attempted to use the Jedi Mind Trick.
He said that he doesn’t condone rape, and apologized for what he said as being “interpreted as rape.” However, if you brazenly announce to the world that you’ve spiked a lady friend’s alcoholic beverage with a hallucinogenic drug, and “she ain’t even know it”, and that you “took her home” and you “enjoyed that,” and “she ain’t even know it,” what is the public supposed to think about his undisclosed actions thereafter? Was the enjoyment in the transporting of the intoxicated woman to your home? Or was the enjoyment from gazing at her after while she was transfixed within a mini-coma?
I don’t know, Bawse. You gotta help me out here, because it sounds an awful lot like date rape to me.
Undeceived and standing to lose droves of consumers and admirers of the brand, Reebok issued a statement to Billboard, detailing their divorce from Ricky Rozay:
“Reebok holds our partners to a high standard, and we expect them to live up to the values of our brand. Unfortunately, Rick Ross has failed to do so. While we do not believe that Rick Ross condones sexual assault, we are very disappointed he has yet to display an understanding of the seriousness of this issue or an appropriate level of remorse. At this time, it is in everyone's best interest for Reebok to end its partnership with Mr. Ross."
To be fair, Reebok should have known beforehand that their former partner made his reputation on being somewhat of an impostor (in more ways than one) and an advocate of drug use. So brand values sort of go out the door here, but essentially rape tends not to make people happy. Something a grown man like Ross should very well know.
If anything, it’ll be interesting to hear what his former boss’ wife has to say about all of this.
