If you find yourself in Walmart this week searching for Rick Ross’ eighth studio album Black Market, you may have a hard time finding it.
Walmart reportedly pulled Ross’ album from shelves earlier last week and it's not available on their website either. Various outlets started reporting the story this weekend after self-proclaimed journalist and media analyst Mark Dice says he contacted Walmart about the Trump diss. The line reads, “Assassinate Trump like I’m Zimmerman/Now accept these words as they came from Eminem.”
Ouch. Black Market was released on December 4, but the Trump lyric, which comes on the track "Free Enterprise," only started gaining attention this weekend.
Dice, an author behind such books as The Illuminati: Facts & Fiction and Inside the Illuminati: Evidence, Objectives, and Methods of Operation, admits to filing a complaint with Walmart, iTunes, Target, and more. He says that Ross’ album is inappropriate, especially if he says he’ll kill a presidential candidate.
This isn't the first time a lyric has gotten Ross in trouble. The Internet caught on fire for a date-rape line in the 2014 song "U.O.E.N.O." That ended up costing Ross a deal with Reebok.
Walmart has not yet confirmed or denied that it has pulled Black Market from shelves, but Rick Ross may have let out a subtweet via Twitter. He yells (assuming, because it’s in all caps):
WE DID IT!!! MY NEW ALBUM #BlackMarketSTILL ON #ITUNES AND WORLDWIDE
HAA HAA #BIGGEST #MMG
— Black Market (@rickyrozay) December 18, 2015So @walmart pulls @rickyrozay albums from store because of a line about trump? What happened to freedom of speech Walmart?explain to the ppl
— Chosen Kid (@ChosenKidMusic) December 20, 2015Black Market has received better reviews than Ross' last couple albums, along with an unsurprising hate message from 50 Cent, but it's still in rotation on every Miamian’s “Get Lit” playlist. Black Market included features from Mariah Carey, Nas, Chris Brown, John Legend, CeeLo Green, The Dream, Future, and DJ Premier. The album debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 chart, but only managed to sell 65,000 units in the first week. America’s biggest retailer snatching the album from shelves probably won't help boost sales.
On the album, Ross threw shots at quite a few folks in the rap game — his former record label Slip-N-Slide, Drake, and clearly Donald Trump. Threatening a presidential candidate might not be the best thing to do when you already have an assault and kidnapping charge pending, but Ross doesn't seem scared.
