Rick Ross Legally Allowed to Keep His Name

It seems like 2014 has started on a more than positive note for Rick Ross. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, the MMG honcho has won the three-year legal battle with drug kingpin “Freeway” Rick Ross for using his name. An appeals court has dismissed the trial on First Amendment grounds and grants the Miami rapper to keep his alias Rick Ross. Here’s what the judge had to say regarding this case:

“We recognize that Roberts’ work—his music and persona as a rap musician—relies to some extent on plaintiff’s name and persona,” writes Judge [Roger] Boren. “Roberts chose to use the name ‘Rick Ross.’ He raps about trafficking in cocaine and brags about his wealth. These were ‘raw materials’ from which Roberts’ music career was synthesized. But these are not the ‘very sum and substance’ of Roberts’ work.”
“Roberts created a celebrity identity, using the name Rick Ross, of a cocaine kingpin turned rapper,” says the ruling. “He was not simply an impostor seeking to profit solely off the name and reputation of Rick Ross. Rather, he made music out of fictional tales of dealing drugs and other exploits—some of which related to plaintiff. Using the name and certain details of an infamous criminal’s life as basic elements, he created original artistic works.”

Celebrate with the “Bawse” if you choose to do so and play his freestyle version of Kanye’s “Bound 2.”