Rapper Rick Ross Used To Lock ‘Em Up

Obviously desperate to distance himself from any affiliation with the cops, rapper Rick Ross denounced as fake photos alleged to show him in a former career as a Florida prison guard. The Smoking Gun has blown the LID off of that shizz. Department of Corrections records show that Ross, whose rappping details the Miami gangsta lifestyle and his supposed days trafficking cocaine, did, in fact, work as a correctional officer for 18 months.

Ross (real name: William Leonard Roberts) was appointed a prison guard in December 1995 at a salary of $22,913.54, according to his personnel record shown here. According to the official document, Ross was earning $25,794.34 when he resigned in June 1997. After graduating from the DoC training academy, Ross was assigned to the South Florida Reception Center in Dade County.

When a photo of a uniform-clad Ross surfaced last week on MediaTakeOut.com, the 32-year-old performer claimed to AllHipHop.com that unnamed “online hackers” put “my face when I was a teenager in high school on other peoples’ body. If this shit was real don’t you think they would have more specifics, like dates and everything?” He added, “Fake pictures are created by the fake, meant to entertain the fake.” The photo, which you can find here, shows a 19-year-old Ross at a DOC ceremony (he was part of the department’s 60th graduating class).

He is pictured shaking hands with Marta Villacorta, who then headed the South Florida Reception Center. Villacorta is now the department’s South Florida regional director. Jo Ellyn Rackleff, a DOC spokesperson, examined the pic for The Smoking Gun and says it’s NOT Photoshopped!

In a recent videotaped interview, Ross replied, “No, that’s not true” when asked if he had worked as a prison guard. He claimed that the phony story was being circulated by detractors upset by his success in the rap world, where, “I came out of nowhere and just took over the streets.” Whoops! Don’t eff with The Smoking Gun, cuz they know more than the FBI! Rick may have taken over the streets, but it looks like he came out of Police Academy!