Rick Ross‘s controversial lyric on Rocko’s song “U.O.E.N.O.” could cost the rapper big. The rhyme, which features the Miami rap superstar referencing drugging an unsuspecting woman and having sex with her, has been criticized for endorsing date-rape. Ross is now at the center of a public backlash and a new petition has surfaced demanding that Reebok, one of the world’s largest athletic wear and sneaker brands, release the Maybach Music Group head from his current endorsement deal.
The Ross lyric in question, “Put molly all in her champagne / She ain’t even know it / I took her home and I enjoyed that / She ain’t even know it,” comes on the heels of the high-profile Steubenville rape case, in which two Ohio high school football players filmed and tweeted about having sexual relations with a female student that was clearly unconscious at the time.
“Reebok devotes a lot of time, energy and money to marketing to women,” says Nita Chaudhury, co-founder of anti-sexism collective UltraViolet. The advocacy group has received over 51,000 signatures from members, moms and young athletes. All are demanding that Ross be dropped from his deal.
And Change.org is going a step further.
“This should be investigated further and he should be prosecuted,” claimed a statement from Change.org. “If it is not true and they are just lyrics, he has still just glorified rape and this should not be ignored.”
Ross offered a less-than-convincing explanation of his position earlier this week. He did not acknowlede that he did anything wrong or offer an alternate explanation for the lyric.
“I want to make sure this is clear,” Ross said during a radio interview. “Woman is the most precious gift known to man, you understand? It was a misunderstanding with a lyric, a misinterpretation where the term ‘rape’ wasn’t used. I would never use the word ‘rape’ in my records. And as far as my camp, hip-hop don’t condone that, streets don’t condone that. Nobody condones that, you understand me? I just wanted to reach out to all the queens that’s on my timeline, all the sexy ladies, the beautiful ladies that have been reaching out to me about the misunderstanding. We don’t condone rape and I’m not with that.”
