Freeway Ricky Ross has always been against the rapper Rick Ross using his name.
The music mogul, born William Leonard Roberts, previously went by the stage name Telflon Da Don. He changed it in the mid-2000s after the former kingpin who served time in prison for building a drug empire in Los Angeles in the 1980s.
The former drug trafficker said he found out while incarcerated that Ross was using his name. Freeway described how he feels about this impersonation to AllHipHop in a 2012 interview: “I didn’t sell drugs so I could sit in everybody’s face, drive around in a Rolls-Royce and wear big gold chains. I sold drugs because I was poor, illiterate, didn’t know any better and had no other opportunities.”
After his release in 2009, he filed a lawsuit against the Florida native for trademark infringement.
“Because if his mama would have named him Rick Ross, you know it would have been all good. Like, ‘Oh that was legit.’ Then I find out he named himself Rick Ross and I was like, That’s kinda f——d up,” said Freeway.
He recalled calling everyone he knew in hopes that someone would connect him with the former prison guard who stole his name. Eventually, they ended up on a five-minute discussion, where the “Biggest Boss” allegedly admitted to using his name and nearly had a “meltdown” over the phone.
Stole everything from the original “Ricky Ross”.
His name, drug dealer life story. Even stole his beard smh pic.twitter.com/sUH1kQzkvY
The 63-year-old claims the Maybach Music CEO “praised” him during the call, saying, “Oh I love you.” But he still felt it was weird with someone walking around with his name on their body.
“When you see a guy and he got his name tattooed on your hands, and you ain’t his dead homie, something’s there. It’s infatuation or something.”
Freeway filed a lawsuit in 2010. He claims he was told by a judge that he had exceeded the two-year statute of limitations to file against Ross and missed the deadline by five days.
He also alleges he has since “moved on,” before dragging Ross’ team of lawyers for the large amount of money used to fight the case, which he alleges came from his royalties.
“They said they spent $1.5 million fighting this lawsuit. $1.5 million and not one time did they come up to me and say, ‘Hey we’ll give you $50,000, we’ll give you $100,000.
“That’s probably why he don’t have no money right now. That’s probably why he broke, why he doing car shows and stuff to pay his rent.”
Ross’ name change was found to be protected under the First Amendment as free speech. Earlier this month, he held his second annual car show at his large estate in Fayetteville Georgia. The event went on without a hitch despite pushback from outraged neighbors.
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