Then, there's a taped, jailhouse phone call from Miami dealer Kenneth 'Boobie' Williams woven throughout the LP, a hood endorsement that fans will relish as it makes the Ross mythology all the more real, but the real wins here are all the long, stretched-out 'Elvis Presley Blvd.'-styled bangers and the new creative opportunities they allow.
Whether or not this justifies the padding and shagginess found on Hood Billionaire all depends on the listener's hunger for Ross and his slick brand of thug music, and yet the album is quite self-aware, putting a two-minute intro up front to act as hater repellent. This album's lumbering and epic single, 'Elvis Presley Blvd.' with Project Pat, also leaked in the summer, making the whole year feel like a Maybach Music festival, where cocaine and caviar were in endless supply. With the November release of Hood Billionaire, platinum rapper Rick Ross had put up two albums in 2014, having already dropped the superior effort Mastermind in March.
