Rick Ross is once again independent but doesn’t plan on staying that way for long. In a new profile for HotNewHipHop, Ross revealed that he’d recently completed his partnership with Epic Records, and is currently taking offers from labels like Def Jam.
Ross also shared his process for seeking a new deal, which included one eyebrow-raising criterion: improvement on his last deal. “When I first came in the game, I just wanted a record deal. But guess what, once I released my first album I began renegotiating right then,” he said. “And I’ve got to salute Ted Lucas, the CEO of Slip-N-Slide records who I was signed to for my first six albums. Before I even made it to my last albums, I had damn near owned everything that I could own, other than a certain distribution percentage. Once you become successful — regardless of what you signed at first — you just come sit at the table like a man. A good businessman gon’ understand that, like ‘Homie you just did something I never even expected.’ And guess what, I did it every album. I asked for more, and I did it on both sides — not just with my record label but also with my attorneys. ‘Hey man, I was giving you give X amount of percentage on my first album, lets cut it down to 12. On the next let’s cut it to 8. Let’s get it to 5.’ That go for everybody. You renegotiate because you learning as you go. Before every album, that’s what you go sit down and say, ‘Hey man, I gotta ask for something I ain’t never had. I’m finna do something I ain’t never done before.’”
The Florida rapper completed his Epic deal in December with the release of Richer Than I Ever Been, his 11th studio album. An underachiever compared to its immediate predecessors, Rather You Than Me and Port of Miami 2, it peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200. However, he’s already teasing a new album which he’ll announce this summer despite not having secured a new record deal yet.