Rick Ross’ History With L.A. Reid Influenced His Decision to Sign With Epic Records

Rick Ross shook up the landscape two weeks ago when he left Def Jam for Epic Records to reunite with powerhouse exec L.A. Reid. The Boss spoke with Billboard about his decision to join the Epic roster and credited his history with Reid as one of the main factors in his decision to switch labels.

"At the end of the day, I based my decision on reality, and reality was history with L.A. Reid," he said. "When I first came to Def Jam, in '06, all we ever did was win, put up big numbers. He always understood my vision and my creative; every time I came in his office, we sat down and discussed different approaches. We always ended up on the same page and we always won big. And at the end of the day, that's what I based the decision on. Man, we made this a real big positive thing. I'm excited."

As most know, Rozay's MMG imprint is signed with Atlantic Records but Renzel did confirm that there is interest from Epic to bring MMG on. "MMG is still signed to Atlantic Records, but I'm having--we most definitely having different conversations. I just had a sit down over at Atlantic. Our 2016 is most definitely looking strong as can be. But we always, you know, out here on the business front, we looking for what's best, what's going on and what's best. We gonna stay focused on the music, but I do have my eyes open for opportunities. And L.A. is most definitely interested in bringing MMG over to Epic Records."

Ross also expressed his interest in touring overseas once his legal problems are situated. "I'm close to a year not being overseas; I was on house arrest this whole last album. The promo I did was really limited. I may have had one month where I could actually go do limited radio runs, and so on and so forth. But you know, it was cool. But I want to be able to move and go back international, go overseas. With the next project we're gonna touch those overseas markets, all those other markets that have been missing me for such a long time. You know, we just gonna continue to build on that. As far as the music and everything else, I got that sewed up. I just need to build it to concentrate more on the things that they do."

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