The July 5th premiere of FX’s new show Snowfall had the hype beast in full effect as it supposedly broke down the infiltration and devastation of crack in Los Angeles. The show, which is set in the 80s was produced by John Singleton, who also co-wrote the show’s pilot episode.
With all of that in mind, the #DXLive crew welcomed in Freeway Rick Ross. For better or worse, he was L.A.’s original crack kingpin bringing in six and sometimes even seven figures daily during his heyday. Ross ran the West Coast before he ultimately went to prison for his clandestine activities. When we brought up Snowfall we figured Rick would have been sought out for such a project. If nothing else, at least to be brought on as a consultant. But as it turns out the show is sort of a sore spot for the former American Gangster.
I didn’t watch [Snowfall]. I’m boycotting it,” Ross told Trent and Jake. “John [Singleton] he bought my book. He knows me very well and that he would do a [sic] movie about crack in the 80s and not come consult with me. Me and him had lunch together before he talked about the story. That he would go out and do a [project] of this nature. It was kind of like a slap in the face,” he added.
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Ross, who is currently a parolee, said that despite his relationship with the famed director, he found out about the show the same way as the rest of us did.
“He didn’t [mention anything about Snowfall when we met] I read about it in the newspaper. Matter fact when I met with The Weinsteins’ Company, one of the things that they were concerned about was him doing Snowfall because it’s so closely related but lucky for me everyone knows it’s not the real story. It’s far from the real story and I’ve been getting good feedback from a lot of people saying that the story was far-fetched and almost unbelievable it’s so fake.” Noted Ross, who did note that Singleton’s people reached out to him after the first season was in the can.
“His people have reached out and said that they wanted to talk to me but it’s after the fact you know? The first season is already shot,” he explained.
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In addition to the screen, Freeway Ricky also spoke about a time when he was locked up that he helped link his then cellmate Michael “Harry O” Harris with Suge Knight, who used Harris’ money to start his new record company Death Row Records.
“I was there the first day that Harry O and Suge met,” Ross recalled. “Me and Harry O were cellies. I can even tell you how the whole thing [happened] and why. Harry was doing a record on his wife Lydia. [She] wanted to be a singer so he was producing her, and he had started me on reading magazines when I got in. So I’m reading one of the magazines and I saw that Dr. Dre and Eazy-E were on bad terms and so Harry is doing a record on his wife Lydia and I was like ‘Why don’t you have Dr. Dre produce one of her tracks?’ That would be the wise thing to do. Him and Eazy is having problems right now. He probably needs money. So Harry said ‘That’s a good idea.’ So immediately he started making phone calls. He wanted to get in touch with Ron Brown, who knew Suge and hooked up. Next thing I know they were forming a record label together.”
Good Read: Check out Freeway Rick’s book, Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography.
Of course, the drug dealer turned public speaker spoke on the rapper Rick Ross (real name William Roberts II) who used his namesake to start his rap career. But while the real Rick Ross was not a huge fan of the rapper’s actions, he has formed a relationship with Philadelphia rap and Roc Nation stalwart, Freeway.
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“That’s my man. He called me about three weeks ago. It might have been before. I was in Pennsylvania. He hit me up ‘You in Pennsylvania? You ain’t said nothin,’’ We’re good. He even offered to do a tour with me where I start going to his shows and selling the books and during the [tour] we’d go to barber shops and do some street promotion. We really have a good relationship.”
Check out the gem-loaded interview above and be sure to tune into #DXLive every Thursday 3-5:30PM PST on HipHopDX’s Facebook page and on the WAV app.
