Rick Ross ‘Rich Forever’ Review: Off to a Great 2012

“Rich Forever,” is Rick Ross’ 2012 mixtape that just works. What Ross expresses through his lyrics is the plan to live life the way he wants with his money. He dares anyone to get in the way.

You won’t.

The majority of the production and lyrics on the songs are phenomenal, but there’s a few beats that sound similar to one another, which make some tracks sound slightly redundant.

Overall, Ross dropped an exceptional compilation of music.

Ross starts off the mixtape with “Holy Ghost,” featuring Diddy. He could have definitely picked a better song to introduce “Rich Forever.” The instrumental is weak and has a bass line that barely carries the track. The piano notes used, sound as if a bored and inexperienced 7-year-old tapped the same keys recurrently, in an attempt to create a masterpiece. At the end of the day, it has an intonation of BGM stage music made for a Gameboy Color game.

The production on the song failed, but the words of Diddy and Ross were enough to save the track. “My teacher told me that I was a piece of s**t. Seen her the other day, driving a piece of s**t,” Ross says. This line is intensely hilarious .It makes you forget about the worst things, a person in power can tell you because one day, you may be better than them. Ross’ delivery on the track is like a sergeant that screams at a private, for mediocre performance after a drill. The vocals are a bit abrasive, but essential to get his point across.

Ross picks things up with the second track “High Definition.” From the moment the beat drops, it immediately commands attention. The chorus is absolutely superb and completely coincides with the vibes of the instrumental. This is the song where windows need to be rolled down with volume to the max, on a sunny day and drive 70 miles per hour on the freeway.

He starts off the track with his signature grunt. “God forgives and I don’t,” Ross says, before he raps. Throughout the bridge and chorus, Ross targets the ears with extraordinary wordplay that shoots like projectiles from an automatic rifle. His lyrics are the shells that fall gracefully on the beat and at the same time, bullets that hit you with bull’s eye trajectory. To captivate the listener, Ross knows exactly what to do.

On the track “F*ck Em,” featuring 2 Chainz and Wale, Ross boasts about his luxuries and accomplishments. “Thought I wouldn’t make it, now I’m winning, Timothy Tebow,” Ross says. The beat is great and gets a decent amount of head nod motion. It has a slow and strong bass with violins thrown towards the end of each verse into the chorus, which help bring out the song. Since the instrumental is slow, Ross takes advantage of that and delivers with a delayed flow. He also did an excellent job with the adlibs he fit between his lyrics and made his presence the most dominant on the track. He’s like Zordon from “The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.” When you hear his voice, you lend both ears to what he has to say.

2 Chainz on the track is like a commercial plane with too much luggage. You need to throw away some of those bags in order to keep things in control. He sounds happy to be there, but the entire song could have survived if he wasn’t on it. For his delivery, he had the right idea. The content of what he rapped though was completely inferior to the rhymes of Ross and Wale. “I run circles around these n***as world like Saturn,” 2 Chainz says. A fourth grader who performs poorly in language arts would be able to come up with that line.

Wale on the other hand gave a relentless and fluent verse. His abstract thought process brings a great amount of uniqueness to the track. His rhymes punch the beat with a constant flow, like Muhammad Ali pounding a speed bag. “I’m switching lanes in one, six, O,” Wale says. He’s does exactly that, as he controls the momentum he brings to the melody, with a terrific cadence.

Stay Schemin’ Ft. Drake and French Montana is an awesome song as well. It’s one of the best tracks on the mixtape. The fantastic beat uses instruments that is similar to an intense action scene out of the first Terminator movie. The bass is sinister like background music played for a tyrant out of an old school kung-fu motion picture. The ‘80s appeal that this tune relays is vintage, but at the same time helps travel through a new era with impressive lyricism.

With such a wonderful instrumental, Ross can only contribute to the cinematic feel of the song. “I ride for my n***as dog,” Ross says on the chorus, while French Montana delivers the rest. Ross verse, which is absolutely short is where the disappointment comes in. He could have made his part a bit lengthy because the poor performance on French Montana’s verse, is incomparable to Ross’ 23 second rhyme. Montana took away from time Ross should’ve had.

Montana did an acceptable job on the chorus, but has a verse that’s sub-par to Ross and Drake’s. He rhymes on the track like he’s on some type of hallucinogen. He sounds like someone’s old grandfather who mumbles the stories of their glory days on a daily basis, but while he finds interest in what he tells, anyone with ears open has complete apathy. His verse was last on the song and it’s unfortunate that he slowed down the easy-going vibes that everyone else brought to the track.

Drake’s verse on the other hand, is the most sensational on the song and definitely one of the most outstanding this year. “Back when other n***as reached, it was for the weapon,” Drake says. “Nowadays n***as reach just to sell a record.”

Drake weaves in and out of the beat like needle and thread. The rhyme was a well seasoned eight ounce steak. “You’re like the f**king finish line, we can’t wait to run into you,” he says.

This mixtape is an enjoyable experience and it’s music like this that will stand the test of time. Rick Ross started off 2012 on the right track.