By Keith Nelson Jr.
Black Dollar has Ross sounding like a trap Farrakhan while struggling to avoid spots of creative
complacency common for a rapper with over ten years under his belt. Ross’ last great free album,
2012’s Rich Forever was powered by a 2011 that saw Maybach Music Group enjoy its most commercial
success, still to this date. However, Black Dollar has rage pumping through its veins from three years
of pushed back albums, internal label fighting and near death shootouts.
Ross still has aspirations to be Rich Forever, he’s just decided to do it with the Black Dollar. Black Dollar plays
like the narration of Martin Scorsese's classic mobster flick Goodfellas with Ross as Henry Hill, disgraced
gangster running away from the mob lifestyle actively trying to murder him while telling his side of the story
before he’s rubbed out of history by those same forces. Ross does not snitch on Black Dollar, but it does
contain the most detailed lyrics of his inner-workings to date. Take the mixtape intro, “Foreclosure” for
instance. A blistering mixture of profound metaphors (“reap what you sew and they talking
RE(reap)possession”) and business talk (“the paper gets funny when publishing involved”) with the latter
seemingly addressing claims that Ted Lucas, Slip-N-Slide CEO and founder, retained 75% of Ross’
publishing even after Ross left the label.
But, it’s the final five bars where all of Ross’ frustrations congeal in a torrential storm of ferocity:
“I never met an artist who fully recouped / These the deals the deal dealers wanna deal to you / Young
niggas, time to act your wage / Buying belts you seen on other niggas’ waists / Hoes fucking for photos
they wanna post online / Whole time, shorty knowing I’m the goldmine / Put her on all he needed was a
co sign / Black minks and gloves, nigga, the whole nine / See me on the road, shit, I had to hold mine /
You’ll foreclose or fold just for soul (sold) signs”.
On “Take Advantage,” a Future-featured song that sounds ripe for the club, he calls Atlantic Records
“fake” after mentioning how he had to put up his $2 million bail over his kidnapping charge from this
summer. He’s “throwing bricks at the man (demand), we gon make it” because “genocide not in the
plans, we gon make it” on the “We Gon Make It.” Then he follows that song with “Bill Gates” where he
boasts he put a “100 bricks on the stock exchange” before ending the song with “fuck 100 bricks, flip 100
restaurants.”
If there is one thing that has never depreciated over the last three years of commercial failures for Ross is
his golden ear for beats and Black Dollar reminds us of this immutable fact. J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League laced Ross
with an orchestral myriad of hard drums, soft strings and piano keys on “Foreclosure” that sounds like it’d
be perfect for the pushed back Maybach Music V. After serving Ross a heatrock on his Mastermind album
with “Rich Is Gangsta,” Black Metaphor returns with a simple boom-bap beat mixed to perfection on “We
Gon Make It” With Jake One on “Geechi Liberace” and “Money Dance,” Nonstop Da Hitman on
“Beautiful Lie” and Key Wayne on “Money & Powder.” Ross assembled a collection of producers known for
fleshing out the dirtiest of rap songs.
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