[Exclusive] Part 2: Rick Ross Details Nigerian Business Interests and Winning with MMG Team

Rick Ross talks locking down entrepreneurial supremacy. (Image: Def Jam Records)

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Speaking of smoking, do you believe African Americans should cash in on this emerging marijuana market?

Yes, I do. Most definitely. It is scientifically proven to help a lot of people. Take me for example—with the seizures I had before— and [for] epileptic people, marijuana has been diagnosed to help them out in different cases. I feel as minorities if we are going to help generate money then we need to be a part of the profit and we need to sit at the table as well. To me, the biggest plus about legalizing marijuana is that it will cut down the number of 14 or 15-year-old high school kids trying it for the first time. Now, instead of catching an arrest case, they can just go home. Now that it’s legalized, it takes the thrill away from running around in an alley and smoking with your friends. Hopefully, now it will be for adults who really need it.

There’s also news you’re branching out into movies?

Yes we are. We did a documentary, M.I Yayo, back in ’06. I was still traveling a lot but I wanted to represent Miami in another fashion. It was my first project and now I feel like I’ve got to do a better job at bringing visuals to the table. So now we just finished writing our first film and hopefully we can start filming before the year is out and release for summer next year.

Meek Mill just launched his album and he’s on the MMG roster. How important is team support at MMG?

I feel it’s everything. My biggest slogan is,”Team work make the dream work.” And I credit our full success to our team. I’m just the spark, the one that turns it up to the degrees it needs to get to. But without a team you can’t really be doing what you could be.

So how about the evolution of yourself as an entrepreneur?

As far as my evolution, I just feel that as a young black male it’s no better time than now to set the precedent, set the example, rewrite the game. And that’s what I’m trying to do. You know being a young artist, coming from making street music, to becoming a global franchisee and all the perks that come with that to me are watching these young people use these franchises as stepping stones to going to that next level in life hopefully. So that’s always been my drive, being a part of history. If it’s a brand and we can rewrite history by doing it bigger than it’s been done then that’s what I thrive for. Ricky Rozay. I wanna be a part of the biggest and the best.

What’s next for Rick Ross?

Just continue what we doing, taking it to the next level. I wanna get into the app world, the video game world, I feel like that’s what’s going to be the next step for me. The way we love making moves in social media, I feel like that’s going to be a great avenue for us and a challenging next chapter.