Rapper Rick Ross Talks about Michael's influence.

MkGenie

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/featur...s-the-boss/p.1 The boss at Def Jam might be L.A. Reid, but Rick Ross doesn't know. The patient Miami rapper, deeming himself "The Boss," waited nearly 10 years to release his debut album Port of Miami. He would wait less than two to follow up with Trilla. In older times, Rick Ross might still be working his previous works to multi-platinum status and fifth or sixth singles. In today's cutthroat climate, Ross has to contend with Young Jeezy, T.I. and The Clipse for the crown of "dope boy rap," and a strong connection with the youth. During a brief conversation with HipHopDX, Ross explains the challenges of a fast transition, what Michael Jackson means to him and a unique, street-embedded friendship with D-12's Bizarre. When you get to Miami, Rick Ross says he already knows you're there. Nearly 20 years after Luke's 2 Live Crew, some rap fans had no idea that Miami mattered till it knew Ross was there. HipHopDX: What correlation do you see between your album and Michael Jackson’s Thriller? Rick Ross: Just me wanting to be Michael Jackson when I was a kid, and me picking up that vinyl and spinnin’ those records, and single-after-single, record-after-record was just… it was a masterpiece. That inspired the title of my album, and I wanted to catch that electricity again. DX: Musically, did you go for an updated sound as well? RR: Most definitely. I wanted to step everything up. That’s why I reached out to R. Kelly for the first single. I got Marsha [Ambrosious] from Floetry to come in and help get the females on my team. She did a lot of work with Michael Jackson. When I was working with her, I thought about that. We laughed, we chopped it up, we just had fun. We put together some real big records. This album is going to be much better than Port of Miami and possibly the best album of the year. And another bit of info from here: http://www.mtv.com/bands/m/mixtape_monday/050107/ Miami's big boss, Rick Ross, says he wants to heat up this summer just like he did last year. His second LP, Trilla, is almost done and should be out in August. "When I was young, that Michael Jackson album Thriller hit me," he said recently in Atlanta, where he was recording. "I remember when I got the LP, the way [the cover] folded open like my notepad at school, it stuck with me. It was one of the greatest albums ever released, one of my favorites. I wanted to come back in a way that was just as exciting. I put the trill on it, so now we have Trilla. Coming real soon, biggest album of the year."