Rick Ross Defends Cardi B. After Old Videos Surface of Her Admitting Past Crimes

Rick Ross is telling fans to “Leave Cardi B. alone,” after an old video resurfaced of the Bronx-bred rapper talking about how she used to drug and rob men when she worked as a stripper.

The internet erupted in response to her controversial confession, spawning a #SurvivingCardiB hashtag and calling for the rapper to be muted, like R. Kelly. Many fans even tagged Rick Ross for comment, citing his somewhat similar situation. 

Ross lost a big seven-figure endorsement deal with Reebox several years ago and understood what backlash could do to your career.  He caught heat for his lyrics on Rocko’s “U.O.E.N.O.” remix in 2013, when he rapped: “Molly in her champagne, she ain’t even know it/I took her home and enjoyed that, she ain’t even know.” The lyrics caused outrage for its promotion of sexual assault.

And in the wake of the #MeToo movement, many argued that there is an unfair double standard for male and female entertainers.

However, Ross firmly disagreed with any comparison as he didn’t think Cardi should’ve be ‘persecuted” for being honest.

“In a lot of circumstances, that’s what comes with that lifestyle. She never hid that, we all know that,” Ross said in a series of videos posted on his Snapchat.

“I took that on the chin, and I have no love lost for Reebok. I needed to understand I was a king and they [were] right, I didn’t need to promote that,” he said. 

Realizing the error of his ways, Ross went on to explain what inspired those lyrics.

“The parties I attended at the time, where I’m from, that was the lifestyle. When we performed that record that was the most popular line to a lot of motherf**kers, and that’s who I wrote that for. I wrote that record speaking for the motherf**kers who were living that lifestyle,” he said.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

“Me being a king, I did not need to promote that among my beautiful queens.” He closed out his message by telling his followers, “We don’t need to persecute her for her past. We need to be leaders and lead by example.”