Rick Ross live at SXSW 2012
Dummy sadly missed “secret guest” Rick Ross at the Fader Fort but a couple of our friends were there. We caught up with Mike Silver, aka musician/producer CFCF who played our SXSW party, and Shelley Wright of Australian label Modular Recordings to find out how it went down.
Mike Silver: I love Rick Ross so much. I think he’s the best rapper in mainstream rap right now. It’s cool that he came up. When he started he was just this dude from Miami and he could have been anything because there were so many rappers coming up. But the way that he’s built this career, he’s standing up there almost unparalleled. Obviously Jay Z and Kanye are the dudes at the top – it’s pretty hard to dispute that – but just slightly below them is Rick Ross. So I was hyped to see him at Fader Fort. I was jumping around. Stalley was playing – he’s a new dude that’s joined Maybach Music – and then Ross came out and the first track he played was I’m A Star. He played Hustlin, B.M.F. Seeing him in person was so exciting because a rapper like Rick Ross you just talk about all the time: you see that new Rick Ross video, or that photo of Rick Ross. So to see him live it was, oh my god, that’s Rick Ross – right there. He was so energetic.
Shelley Wright: All of the videos you ever see him in are so high-def and movie-like. The gold of the chains is glinting, it’s so unreal. So when that person’s five metres in front of you and you can see the sweat on them – they’re like a cartoon but animated. It’s like am I in that video?
Mike Silver: Also he takes off his glasses off occasionally and he looks weird as hell without them. He’s got these crazy, big, bugged-out eyes. It’s weird seeing him live, it’s like he’s human for the first time. It’s cool.