Last month, Rick Ross held his annual Boss Up Conference, where young entrepreneurs pay up to $25,000 to come to his mansion in Georgia. Guests are advised on how to enhance their business and make smart financial moves by the rapper and his other celebrity mogul friends. Each will walk out with a crimson-colored blazer, a new mindset and maybe a new hustle or two.
According to TMZ, the Biggest Boss sent a warning letter to Tiffany McIntosh, who he believes copied his brand’s likeness for her “I’m the Biggest Boss Conference.” She is accused of using some of his biggest songs, “The Boss” and “Push It,” to promote the kid conference.
McIntosh’s event takes place October 13-16 in Houston, Texas. Entertainers like Master P, Romeo Miller, Vivica Fox, motivational speaker Eric Thomas and a dozen more influential people are scheduled to speak. All are featured on the event flyer, including McIntosh and her husband, Calvin. Ticket prices varied between as low as $400 and as high as $5,300.
However, Ross is worried people may think he sponsored the kid conference. The 46-year-old suggested that McIntosh remove the word “boss” from her conference’s title and remove his music.
McIntosh was expected to meet his demands by Wednesday, Oct. 5. But instead, she chose to address the matter on Facebook. In her first post, she accused Ross of costing her “hundreds of thousands in sponsorships” for agreeing to do her event and backing out nine days before. She provided receipts of communication with his team in the comments and went into further detail later in a 55-minute video.
“Now I thought Rozay was a boss. I thought he was a boss?” said the entrepreneur. She claims 50 Cent was originally her top five pick to host the event but his touring schedule would not allow it. Ross was number two, which is why she and her team reached out to his management at the top of the year.
McIntosh alleges Ross agreed to do the event for $75,000 and provided “receipts, confirming his attendance for months but never signed the contract. She even agreed to push her date to October in consideration of Ross’ conference. One text from his team read, “I know its taking a long time but I want you to know the date was approved. It’s just a lot going on. I’m staying on top of it. Please don’t be discouraged.”
But her main concern was receiving confirmation to obtain sponsors and donations for the children and event to avoid fraud. “After these people gave me the runaround for months, we couldn’t even promote for months. They finally call me,” she recalled before being told, ‘he’s not even going to do it.’ “
McIntosh was then forced to replace Ross with Master P and Romeo Miller and alleges she almost had to sell her home to cover the financial loss. The Six-Figure Chics founder and CEO said she put up six figures of her own money for this particular conference and that Ross was well aware of the event name and location.
In the text allegedly provided from March of this year, she reveals she also offered to change the event title to “My Six-Figure Lyfe Business Conference.” She said his team still told her, Ross “did not want to do it anymore.”
Permission to use his music in the promotional ads was allegedly given by “his management team, per the receipts.” McIntosh pledged to “never” use his music in affiliation or association with her brand ever again.
“How you gon’ be a fraud and try to come for somebody that’s doing something for the community? What? I could have drug you for making me lose my sponsorship money. But I ain’t even cut like that,” she explained.
McIntosh still plans to host the “I’m the Biggest Boss Conference” this month and expects a sold-out event due to her newfound publicity. In between sharing details, she made reference to the rapper’s birth name.
“And the real Rick Ross. I just can’t understand how somebody took a whole other man’s name,” she joked. “And then try to come for you for a common word. His name is William … Roberts.”
The former prison guard Williams Leonard Roberts initially went by the stage name Teflon Da Don. He changed it to Rick Ross in the mid-2000s after a former drug kingpin.
Freeway Ricky Ross has adamantly voiced his opposition to Ross using his name and persona to make millions in the music industry. He first sued the “Port of Miami” artist, along with Jay-Z, Def Jam, Universal, and other entities for trademark infringement in 2010, as reported by AllHipHop.com.
The author known for his drug empire sued the “Coming 2 America” actor again in 2012 and for a second time a judge ruled against him.
“I feel that the law has let me down,” Freeway told the outlet. “I feel not only have they let me down, but they’ve let down the black community as a whole. You have these people going around portraying us in an image that’s not what we are.”
Freeway continued, “I didn’t sell drugs so I could sit in everybody’s face, drive around in a Rolls-Royce and wear big gold chains. I sold drugs because I was poor, illiterate, didn’t know any better, and had no other opportunities.”
