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RR: Daily. I call him The Big Homie because there's only one Big Homie; I don't care what nobody else calls him. I just let Him know I'm appreciative of everything, and I'm really under his command. The second he calls for me or is ready for me, I'm going to open my arms to him. What are you here in this life as Rick Ross to learn and to teach? RR: Just that others like me, who never learned math, that you can still be the CEO, you can still become authors and artists. Nobody ever told me that. I had to learn that on my own. When I was in school, I sat in the back of the class making jokes, trying to cover up the fact that I never learned multiplication or algebra. I want to let youngsters who are in the position I was in, know that they can be in this position I'm in now. My father wasn't there to tell me that, and I never had a big brother. The people I looked at were the ones in the street. I know the advice I always got from them, but I want to teach others that you can become a CEO, a huge success. I'm not only the CEO of one company, but close to a dozen. That's what I want to be able to teach people on a major scale. To divert a bit, let's talk about a song from your recent album, Port of Miami 2, "Gold Roses" featuring Drake. It's a great song. Describe the dynamic between you and Drake, musically and personally. RR: Drake is a genuine human being, and I think that is what I admire and respect about him so much. The role I've always played with him was Big Homie, and he always played my Lil' Homie. That dynamic has always been as natural as it comes, and that's when we're in the recording booth and when we're outside the recording booth. He's not afraid to show his sensitive side, and that's what makes him the artist he is. You've been quoted as saying that you never question God. Even in your darkest moments, you've never asked, "Why?" or questioned Him in any way? RR: If I have, it was many years ago, before I began to understand what life is. Life can be a cruel place; it can be a cold place. But it also can be as beautiful as you make it. I didn't even question Him on the morning I woke up with my closest friend dead in the room next to me. We had just been together three hours earlier, and now three hours later, he's dead and gone [Rick recounts this story in his book, Hurricanes: A Memoir]. I never questioned when my other closest homeboy was gunned down in a home invasion in front of his 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old sons. I'm not going to question the Big Homie. Whatever his plans are, that's his plans. However I go out, it's destiny. Have you ever stopped to reflect on, and question, the violence that's surrounded you throughout your life? RR: Growing up where I grew up, I never questioned it because questioning it did nothing for it. Hearing AK-47s going off for sixty seconds at a time, you can cry, you can pray, you can question it, but you better just sit back, shut the fuck up, and wait for the ambulance to come. Year after year of seeing and hearing it and walking to school while passing a dead body, it gets to a point where you don't question it. You got to decide, am I going to survive or am I going to die? You discuss your solid financial prowess in your book. What do you teach your children about money? RR: The disadvantage my children have is that they're my kids, and my entire family is in a different position. They're receiving money from everybody. I could put my kids on an allowance, but my daughters have credit cards. I do explain the importance and the value of building a brand. I don't speak to my daughter about coming up from the mud to the marble and starting with nothing, because that's not her life. She's not in the position me and my sisters were in. Instead, I talk to her about the importance of maintaining our brands and bringing something new to the brand. By the time she was fourteen, my daughter knew how to run a Wingstop [one of Rick's several business interests]. If we left her in a Wingstop [restaurant] with two other people, they would be able to run it for a full day. With my hair care line, RICH Hair Care [RICH by Rick Ross], I allow her to be in the conference calls and to sit in on the meetings. At the same time, she gets to live and enjoy life much more than I did at her age. You have to take the good with the bad, but I most definitely let them see firsthand what hard work is. You're raising your kids in the Holyfield Mansion [Rick's 44,000-square-foot Georgian estate, once owned by Evander Holyfield]. I would imagine there has to be a sense of entitlement when your kids are growing up in what is, for all intents and purposes, a palace. RR: It's not something I overthink. As parents, we need to set examples because we have to let our children grow into what and who they are going to be. I really don't put a lot of pressure on my kids, because they're good students and they are very respectful of me and of everyone else around them. I'm allowing them to