Name Game.Rapper Rick Ross was allowed to keep his alias after successfully defeating former drug lord, Freeway Rick Ross in a California appeals court. Freeway filed a lawsuit in 2010 claiming infringement on his namesake. According to Judge Roger Boren however, Rozay was protected under the first amendment.
“We recognize that Roberts’ work — his music and persona as a rap musician — relies to some extent on plaintiff’s name and persona. Roberts chose to use the name ‘Rick Ross.’ He raps about trafficking in cocaine and brags about his wealth. These were ‘raw materials’ from which Roberts’ music career was synthesized. But these are not the ‘very sum and substance’ of Roberts’ work.”
