Musicians aren’t typically held to the same standards as other spokesmen when they’re chosen to represent a product. It sort of comes with the territory that they’ll say and do some wild things now and again, but that doesn’t mean there’s not still a line. That’s a hard lesson Rick Ross found out this week when Reebok fired him from his endorsement contract because of lyrics many interpreted as condoning rape.
The song in question is the Rocko jam “U.O.E.N.O.”. Ross contributes a verse, and in it, he says the following…
"Put molly all in her champagneshe ain’t even know itI took her home and I enjoyed thatshe ain’t even know it"
Molly is a street name for MDMA. Thus, many fans have interpreted the lyrics to be describing a date rape. If you take it from Ross, that couldn’t be further from the truth. He’s taken to Twitter several times to overtly denounce sexual assault since the protests first started up, but apparently, it wasn’t enough to warm Reebok’s increasingly cold feet.
Here’s a portion of the company’s official statement…
"While we do not believe that Rick Ross condones sexual assault, we are very disappointed he has yet to display an understanding of the seriousness of this issue or an appropriate level of remorse.”
Ross has had more than his share of problems over the years, but whether or not this situation should have been one of them depends on who you ask. There are some who think this lyric was blown entirely out of proportion, while there are others who think Ross needed to go because of his comment.
What do you think? Should Reebok have fired Ross? Let us know your thoughts by voting in the poll below…
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