Artists have often spoken openly about their childhoods and the struggles they have faced. Some dealt with poverty, others with bullying, and some had trouble academically, and in a new interview with AfroTech, Rick Ross detailed why he used humor to mask areas that he felt he lacked as a youth. The award-winning Rap mogul has acquired a level of success that is often only found in one’s dreams, but he shared that because he struggled in school, he decided to use his ability to make people laugh to his advantage.
“I was a jackass,” said the Miami Carol City Senior High School graduate. “Without a doubt, I was a comedian, I had a good sense of humor. I was the funny dude and all that… And I don’t think it was just because I naturally wanted to be, but [because] I didn’t know the answers to the questions and all the stuff [the teachers were] writing on the wall.”
Rich Fury / Staff / Getty Images
“That might’ve been my way to cover that up because I never understood, I never learned my multiplication still to this day,” Rozay added. “Imagine when they began going into pre-algebra a=e, that sh*t was like a whole ’nother language to me.”
“I just wanted to walk out of the goddamn…’What are you talking about? A=E? What is this?’ I knew right then, while I was sitting in the math class, I wanted to learn how to be a great speaker because when I’m speaking to somebody, I don’t want them to know my shortcomings in my other areas. So, that’s what made me become a writer and I think that’s why I’m an author now.”
The Carol City native recalled walking the streets of his neighborhood and he said he noticed that those who had the nicest homes were the people who decided to embark into the business world.
“I knew as a youngster, I never wanted to be a dentist. I never wanted to be a doctor,” said Ross. “I never thought about none of that. I knew I would either play football or I would be doing something on my own. And that’s what I did.”