Shrugging off the licit truths that had come to light the year before, he came into focus. On 2009’s Deeper Than Rap, however, Ross emerged, for the first time, as an artist worth taking seriously. “When I say that I’m rich off cocaine,” he told an interviewer after copping to the corrections job, “it’s because I did it.” Under an “Experience” section, Ross noted that he’d worked one summer as a Big Brother through the Miami-Dade Parks and Recreation department, during which time he “exchanged thoughts and ideas with middle school boys and girls” and, as “a high-school All-American,” represented “a positive role model they could relate with.” In October 2008, Ross finally admitted the documents’ validity, stressing that this didn’t undermine his bona fides as an extremely negative role model. Doubters were free to peruse Ross’ job application, filled out by hand, in which he listed the college he attended for a year (Albany State in Georgia), where, he wrote, he played football, studied Criminal Justice, and once volunteered to help Red Cross flood-relief efforts. The Web site followed up on this scoop by posting excerpts from Ross’ 86-page Dept. Blaming Photoshop-savvy “online hackers,” he called the image a forgery, adding, “Fake pictures are created by the fake, meant to entertain the fake.” Unconvinced, the Smoking Gun dug up an old payroll record revealing that Ross had earned about $25,000 a year as a C.O. The rapper, now 35, initially denied it was him in the picture.

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