Rick Ross’ New Birdman Diss Track “Idols Become Rivals” Pulls No Punches

Rick Ross , when at the top of his game, was a
regular collaborator with the stars of Cash
Money Records—Lil Wayne, Drake, and Nicki
Minaj. He even recorded a collaborative
mixtape with Birdman , the head of the label,
back in 2008. Relations have been sour
between the two for some time, however. Ross
has previously been vocal in his support of Lil
Wayne , who claims to be stuck in his Cash
Money contract and, in 2015, moved to sue
Birdman to the tune of $51 million for unpaid
fees surrounding his unreleased album Tha
Carter V. (That suit was put on hold sometime
last year). When Birdman
...made his stormy,
well-memed appearance on Power 105.1’s The
Breakfast Club last April, Ross apparently sent
six cases of rosé to the station.
Now, Ross has addressed his relationship with
Birdman very explicitly on a new song, “Idols
Become Rivals,” included on his new
album Rather You Than Me. The song is, nearly
front to back, all about Birdman, both a elegy to
Ross’ former friendship with the Cash Money
honcho and as clear an indictment of his
notoriously shady business practices as we’ve
seen from an artist who wasn’t directly
screwed over by him.
Here are some of the relevant passages from
the track, which was made available
internationally today. First, Ross recalls the
moment he first realized Birdman wasn’t as
flush he always purported to be:

             I used to see you niggas on my TV
screen And wondered what was life like
, was it all a dream?
And then I met you out on LiveNation
dates
Came to the realization that your watch
was fake Damn… you nearly broke my heart
I really thought you niggas really owned
them cars

Then, Ross volunteers a deeply unfortunate
metaphor regarding Birdman’s unfair treatment
of artists:

 Catholic record labels, niggas gettin’
raped, boy
Birdman’s a priest, moans in his
synagogue
Publishing is a sin, repent, forgive me,
Lord

There are a lot more specifics in the
song–“You stole them boys pub and bought a
foreclosure / Scott Storch demons in it, which
is more poison”–as well as accusations that
Birdman didn’t look after his first-wave Cash
Money artists and collaborators BG and Turk
when they were incarcerated and suffering
from drug addiction.
There is a section in which Ross criticizes,
without entering into specifics, the way in which
Birdman treated DJ Khaled, whose We the Best
imprint was formerly part of Cash Money up
until 2005 . “Khaled was loyal to you, nigga /
The pain I seen in my brother’s eye, nigga,”
Ross raps. “FaceTimin’ my nigga, nigga, he
took that to the chin, nigga.”

Still, the most powerful sections of the song
relate specifically to Wayne:

You would give us self esteem and
motivate our drive
But was in our pockets by the time we
count to five
I pray you find the kindness in your heart
for Wayne
His entire life, he gave you what there
was to gain
I watched this whole debacle so I’m part
to blame
Last request, can all producers please
get paid?

Today, Weezy expressed his gratefulness for
Ross’ support on Twitter