Since Trick Daddy hit the scene with his first release “A True Story” in 1997, he has been the only rapper from the Miami area to garner major success. For many years after, he was still the only major player in the Hip Hop genre from Florida period. In recent years there has been an emergence of several other rappers who have taken the spotlight from the self proclaimed “Mayor of Miami”. There has been a major explosion of successful rappers from the South Florida area such as Plies, Pitbull, Flo-Rida but most notably Rick Ross.

Ross seemed to takeover the Miami area after the release of the single “Hustlin” and then his first CD “Port of Miami” which was very successful for a freshman release. The vivid stories of drug sales and trafficking gave Ross instant street cred and many began to forget about Trick Daddy and question if his was career was over. To add insult to injury, Ross has been known to refer to himself on wax as the “Mayor of Miami”. Both rappers are signed to Slip and Slide Records which complicated things even more.

At the 2007 Ozone awards, several rappers including Trick and Ross were together on stage performing the song “Made in Dade” when during the closing Trick made the statement “I’m the Mayor of Miami and I run Florida, all you other Ni…. are just my proteges”. You could see the disgust on the face of Ross and the other arists as they walked off of the stage. In Ross’ defense, he has reached out to Trick to calm the beef. Ross featured Trick on the cut “Luxury Tax” from his sophomore album “Trill” and gave Trick a shout out on the Intro track.

The real beef between the two has nothing to do with music. The truth is, Trick Daddy has always disliked anyone with an allegiance to the notorious Boobie Boys drug gang from the Carol City area. Trick’s brother, Hollywood, was allegedly murdered at the hands of the Boobie Boys. Hollywood (who dated the rapper Trina) was at a popular spot in Carol City in the 90’s known as Miami Nights when he was gunned down. Trick feels disrespected by Ross because of his supposed relationship with the leader of Boobie Boys, Kenneth “Boobie” Williams. Ross even wore Boobie Boys shirts in the ‘Hustlin Video” which was actually filmed in the parking lot of the plaza in Carol City which once was the home of Miami Nights. Many in the Miami area say that Ross doesn’t even know Williams at all and that Williams is actually upset about the release of the DVD “MIYAYO” which Ross produced. Williams supposedly is upset because he is trying to appeal his conviction and feels the movie has shed a negative light on his case.

In recent weeks, stories have been circulating on the net that Ross was once a correctional officer at a prison in Miami. If true these allegations would deal a large blow to Ross’ street cred. Pictures of a man with a significant resemblance to Ross were released on the net as well as copies of a paystub with Ross’ real name. Ross has said that this is the work of none other than Trick Daddy himself who is trying to destroy his career because of his jealousy. Trick Daddy fired back saying that people in Ross’ camp are trying to create a war between the two for publicity and that he had no part in releasing any of the information. He also went on to say that situations like this can end up with one man in jail and the other man dead. We’ll pray that it doesn’t come to this because Hip Hop doesn’t need anymore bloodshed.