Rapper Rick Ross joined much of the world in reflecting on the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. this past weekend. The Maybach Music Group founder spoke to Revolt TV about the civil rights icon, and revealed a conversation that he’d had with an older gentleman about Dr. King. Ross says that the older gentleman shared with Ross his belief that King’s 1968 assassination had less to do with his anti-segregation activism and more to do with the fact that he was attempting to educate African Americans about economic empowerment.
“We all carry that burden to continue the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. We all are responsible for making sure that resonates with everybody else that’s underneath us and around us. That was most definitely a very peaceful, very powerful, influential brother. I actually was having a conversation with another older gentleman and I was just asking him about Martin Luther King. We were actually in Memphis. This brother was like, ‘The ‘I Have A Dream’ speech, that was a beautiful speech. Powerful speech. Powerful speech.’ He said ‘But that’s not the speech that got the brother murdered.’ I said ‘It’s not?’ I said ‘What was?'”
“He said, ‘Brother Martin gave a speech at a church a few days before he was murdered telling black people to buy land. Buy all the land you can. We need land.’ And I was looking at the brother. He said ‘You remember that. You remember that.’ I said ‘I’m gonna remember that, Pops.'”
Ross said that that man’s statement resonated deeply with him.
“Him telling me that, man–it just let me know it’s so much that I don’t know about the brother,” Ross said. “His name will live forever.”
