Rick Ross – Deeper Than Rap
2009 Album Of The Year
A lot of controversy surrounded this album and a lot of beef surrounded it as well, but musically speaking, Rick Ross had one of the better albums in 2009 with Deeper Than Rap. And out of Miami-based releases, it seemed that this nod had to go to Ross. Even though most of the songs leaked one by one on many hip-hop blogs, it didn’t stop this release from scoring 158,000 copies in its first week of sales. Aside from the smooth lyrics constructed by Ross song after the song, the quality of the production chosen for the album was a definite win. Beats were provided by The Inkredibles, Justice League, and The Runners to name a few. The 50-Cent jabbing “Mafia Music” was the first song released, which was then followed by the lead single (and the Special Ed inspired) “Magnificent”. But the gem of the album seemed to lay on the epic existence of “Maybach Music 2” that featured T-Pain, Lil Wayne and Kanye West. The beat alone has garnered “instrumental of the year” mentions from tons of industry insiders and upcoming emcees alike. Overall, the package was just all there for this release. A solid body of work which to my opinion, is Rick Ross’ best album to date.