Add Freeway Rick Ross to the list of people questioning John Singleton’s directorial vision. The former drug kingpin is calling out the director for leaving him out of Snowfall.
Known for running one of the most notable narcotics organizations in the 1980’s, his infamous moniker saw a resurgence in the new millennium via rappers Freeway and Rick Ross. While his copyright infringement lawsuit against the Maybach Music Group boss was eventually dismissed, Freeway Ricky has lent his expertise to several media projects.
Produced by John Singleton, FX’s newest show Snowfall depicts crack cocaine’s early beginnings in the Los Angeles area. In a recent sit down with HipHopDX, the former kingpin denounced the show citing that he was never consulted even though he talked in depth about his story with the Poetic Justice director.
“John [Singleton] he bought my book. He knows me very well and that he would do a [sic] movie about crack in the 80s and not come consult with me. Me and him had lunch together before he talked about the story. That he would go out and do a [project] of this nature. It was kind of like a slap in the face,”
Ross also questioned the validity of the show’s accuracy and overall narrative.
“He didn’t [mention anything about Snowfall when we met] I read about it in the newspaper. Matter fact when I met with The Weinsteins’ Company, one of the things that they were concerned about was him doing Snowfall because it’s so closely related but lucky for me everyone knows it’s not the real story. It’s far from the real story and I’ve been getting good feedback from a lot of people saying that the story was far-fetched and almost unbelievable it’s so fake.”
It seems Singleton has felt the heat as Ricky asserts that Singleton’s team has indeed reached out saying “his people have reached out and said that they wanted to talk to me but it’s after the fact you know? The first season is already shot.”
In addition to his gripe with Snowfall, Ross also shared how he originally introduced Michael “Harry O” Harris to Suge Knight—the long forgotten investor who initially funded Death Row Records.
“I was there the first day that Harry O and Suge met. Me and Harry O were cellies. I can even tell you how the whole thing [happened] and why. Harry was doing a record on his wife Lydia. [She] wanted to be a singer so he was producing her and he had started me on reading magazines when I got in. So I’m reading one of the magazines and I saw that Dr. Dre and Eazy-E were on bad terms and so Harry is doing a record on his wife Lydia and I was like ‘Why don’t you have Dr. Dre produce one of her tracks?’ That would be the wise thing to do. Him and Eazy is having problems right now. He probably needs money. So Harry said ‘That’s a good idea.’ So immediately he started making phone calls. He wanted to get in touch with Ron Brown, who knew Suge and hooked up. Next thing I know they were forming a record label together.”
You can view the interview in its entirety here.
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Photo: WENN.com
