Blog 6

In his video, “The Boss” featuring T Pain, Rick Ross portrays himself as a successful Black man. In the process, he makes use of some major stereotypes on race and gender. The video opens with a Rick Ross boasting about his sexual abilities. The scene changes to him lying on a large bed talking on the phone; he appears to be annoyed. A black woman dressed in black lingerie climbs on top of him and becomes the victim of his annoyance; she is brutally pushed aside. He then sits up throws his cell phone forcefully to the ground, it shatters to pieces. The act of pushing the woman and forcefully throwing the cell phone to its breakage are results of aggression and violence. This can be attributed to a gender related stereotype that aggression and violence are characteristics of masculinity. After he pushed her, the lady humbly lies down on the bed without saying a word. This can be attributed to a common stereotype that feminine individuals are passive and submissive. These stereotypes were also noted by Aaron Devor in “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes”. He stated, “These two clusters of attributes are most commonly seen as the mirror image of one another with masculinity usually characterized by dominance and aggression, and femininity by passivity and submission.”

 In this video, Rick Ross constructs a racial stereotype of Black people. In one of the scenes he boasts about the amount of money he made selling drugs. He states, “I made a couple million dollars last year dealing weight, still in the streets strapped with them thangs”. The term “strapped” here refers to having a gun. Having a gun is a display of aggression because guns are used to inflict terror and pain. This show of aggression, Rick Ross associates with one of the reasons females love him. Following this line, he sings, “She is in love with a G so she tattooed my name Ross” the term “G” is derived from the word gangsta. Gangsta can have two interpretations these are; a criminal who is a member of a gang or an aggressive type of music
focused on gang culture and violence; also called gangster rap. In the music videos like this one, black people are often represented as drug dealers, bank robbers and gang members. This is as a result of a racial stereotype of Black people as rough, aggressive people. The video also demonstrates this when Rick Ross goes to collect money from one his street retailers, who then begs for an additional day since he does not have Rick’s money. The artiste makes a call and says to the person, “Come deal with this”; a young man male approximately thirteen to fourteen years old quickly appears and snatches the customer’s chain from his neck. Rick Ross then winks at the young lady who was with the retailer and she smiles approvingly and admiringly at him. The scene then changes to the artiste lying in bed sandwiched by two women. Rick Ross is obviously in control and the customer’s girlfriend from her reaction finds him appealing. This doesn’t just end on the stereotype that Black males are aggressive, it extends to stereotype that Black females also approve of this and are in fact aggressive as well.