Rick Ross Gets Sued by Former Drug Dealer for Stealing His Name

I never bought into the hype that Rick Ross was a fraud. Everyone seemed to feel that because he was found to have been a corrections officer in a previous life, he somehow violated the oath which says that rappers have to be criminals in order to sell records. I don't know how true or false the rumors happen to be, but the fact is that I never cared.

However, when I found out that there is reason to believe that the rapper Rick Ross took his name from the notorious drug dealer "Freeway" Ricky Ross, I thought to myself, "This is just stupid. Why can't the brother just be himself?"

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Rappers Turned Actors

Stage Name: Ice T
Real Name: Tracy Marrow
Notable Acting Roles: 'New Jack City,' 'New York Undercover,' 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'
Factoid: Talk about a 360. Once a controversial gangsta rapper with the song 'Cop Killer,' Ice T is a household name -- thanks to his role as NYPD Detective Odafin 'Fin' Tutuloa on the police drama 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.' Series co-creator Dick Wolf reportedly cast him in after seeing his NAACP Image Award-winning portrayal of drug dealer Danny Cort on 'New York Undercover.'

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Rappers Turned Actors

Acting Up:
Queen Latifah, Will Smith and Ice Cube may be some of the most bankable black actors in Hollywood. But they are also hip hop royalty. These Grammy Award winners lead a growing list of rappers who caught the acting bug. Check them out.

Rappers Turned Actors

Stage Name: Queen Latifah
Real Name: Dana Elaine Owens
Notable Acting Roles: 'Jungle Fever,' 'Living Single,' 'Set It Off'' 'Chicago'
Factoid: The New Jersey native spent five years as magazine editor Khadijah James on the hit television sitcom 'Living Single,' but this Grammy Award winning Cover Girl spokesperson was marked as an actress to watch when she scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Matron Mama Morton in the movie 'Chicago,' based on the hit Broadway musical.

Rappers Turned Actors

Stage Name: Ice Cube
Real Name: O'Shea Jackson
Notable Acting Roles: 'Boyz N the Hood,' 'Barbershop,' 'Are We There Yet?' 'Friday'
Factoid: This former N.W.A. rapper got his start as Doughboy in the John Singleton directed Academy Award-nominated film 'Boyz N the Hood' before starring in and producing his own comedy 'Friday' as well as family-friendly fare like 'Are We There Yet' and its sequel.

Rappers Turned Actors

Stage Name: DMX
Real Name: Earl Simmons
Notable Acting Roles: 'Belly,' 'Exit Wounds,' 'Romeo Must Die'
Factoid: Once a chart-topping rap superstar, DMX, who reportedly suffers from a bipolar disorder, has spent most of the past five years in and out of jail, which has side-lined his budding acting career -- not to mention the possibility of starring in an official sequel to the Hype Williams-helmed cult classic 'Belly' alongside fellow rapper Nas.

Rappers Turned Actors

Stage Name: Will Smith
Real Name: Willard Christopher Smith, Jr.
Notable Acting Roles: 'Independence Day,' 'Six Degrees of Separation,' 'Men In Black' and 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air'
Factoid: At 40, not only is this 'Parents Just Don't Understand' rapper one of only two hip-hop artists to receive an Academy Award nomination in an acting category (Queen Latifah is the other), but Smith is the only actor in history to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in domestic box office and have all eight open at #1.

Rappers Turned Actors

Stage Name: Nas
Real Name: Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones
Notable Acting Role: 'Belly'
Factoid: In both a pivotal scene in 'Belly' and on a song called 'One Love' from his 1994 album 'Illmatic,' this New York lyricist talks about a character named 'Shorty,' who shoots from the roof of a Queens project building.

Rappers Turned Actors

Stage Name: Method Man
Real Name: Clifford Smith
Notable Acting Roles: 'How High,' 'The Wackness,' 'The Wire'
Factoid: According to 'The Wire' series creator David Simon, the Wu Tang Clan member's character Melvin 'Cheese' Wagstaff was the father of Randy Wagstaff, a young boy in the final two seasons of the Emmy-nominated HBO drama, but the relationship was never explored on the show.

Rappers Turned Actors

Stage Name: Diddy
Real Name: Sean John Combs
Notable Acting Roles: 'Raisin in the Sun,' 'Monster's Ball'
Factoid: Although his early days forming Bad Boy Records were portrayed on the silver screen by actor Derek Luke in the Notorious B.I.G. biopic 'Notorious,' Diddy has worked tirelessly so that he would be taken seriously as a thespian. Since starring in 'A Raisin in the Sun' on Broadway and then taking a bit role in the critically-acclaimed indie 'Monster's Ball,' the hip hop mogul has been cast in the upcoming movie 'Get Him to the Greek.'

Rappers Turned Actors

Stage Name: Mos Def
Real Name: Dante Terrell Smith
Notable Acting Roles: '16 Blocks,' 'Brown Sugar,' 'The Italian Job,' 'Cadillac Records,' 'Monster's Ball'
Factoid: The Brooklyn native studied theater at New York University and also starred in the 2002 Tony Award-nominated and Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play 'TopDog/UnderDog.'

Rappers Turned Actors

It turns out that "Freeway" Ricky Ross feels the same way that I do. He's formally filed a lawsuit against William Roberts (the other Rick Ross), claiming Trademark Infringement. The suit was filed in California Federal Court. Other parties to the suit are Jay-Z, Maybach Music Group, Slip-N-Slide Records and the Universal Music Group.

"Freeway" Ricky Ross' attorneys also filed a temporary restraining order for preliminary and permanent injunction relief to block the release of Rick Ross' upcoming album, "Teflon Don."

The lawsuit against Ross brings us back to a resounding and continuous question: Why do rappers have to pretend to be drug dealers or prison inmates? I agree with the late Tupac Shakur, who made it clear that there is no reason to glorify prison life. We can also agree that a life of crime is stressful and harmful to those you love. It's one thing if someone once committed crimes and remains unashamed of their past. It's another thing when they go out of their way to make people think they were criminals when they were (gasp!) law-abiding citizens.

Be yourself William Roberts, it really is OK to be a normal, intelligent black man.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book, "Black American Money." To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

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