Album Review: Mastermind (Rick Ross)

Rick Ross dropped his sixth album two days ago, on Monday the third of March (a day earlier from the planned date). Being titled Mastermind, the album starts off with a series of snippets from Rick Ross's past hits, and then it goes into a speech by the late Napoleon Hill on what being a Mastermind entails (there is a chapter titled Power of the Master Mind in Hill's classic book, Think and Grow Rich). This is a good intro, as it shows depth, one thing that is very uncommon with most hip hop albums. Rich Is Gangster comes on as the first official song on the album, and Ross spits some raps on how being a Boss has to do with being successful and getting money, and he equates that to how Rich is Gangster. He also takes a slight jab at his arch nemesis, 50 Cent, rapping- "For me to move forward from here on I need 50...and I ain't talking 50 Cent neither."

The next song, Drug Dealer Dreams starts off with a machine reading out Rick Ross's account balance, which is on that thin line between believable and unbelievable; but it sure stands as a motivator for anyone seeking success. All the skits on the album are just right, and gives the album a life of its own, which will help it stand the test of time. It is not like some albums in the past couple of years that appear like the artists just threw a bunch of song together. With Mastermind, if you listen with an open mind, you would not skip one song till you get to the end of the album. And the deluxe version has some germs too. The song with Scarface, Blessing In Disguise is one of my personal favorites on the album. A lot of Ross haters have to take a chill pill after this one. Ross has done songs with virtually all the greats alive today (Dre, Nas, Andre 3000, Jay Z...), and this one just solidifies things in his career; especially the part of the song where Scarface raps- "I've been knowing Ross since he was Teflon, same nigga now it was back then, nothing stepped on." (Ross was going by the name Teflon Da Don in the early 2000s)




This album's power is in the fact that no song is better than the next, there is no album fillers, all the songs are on the album for different purposes. Over all, I think this album is a strong contender for album of the year. I would score it a four and half rating out of five.