Rapper and entrepreneur Rick Ross smiles as he sits on the dais during the 31st Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Breakfast inside the Miami Convention Center on Monday, January 15, 2024 in Miami Beach, Florida.
Carl Juste
cjuste@miamiherald.com
Rick Ross is a man with a plan when it comes to food.
The rapper turned himself in to Miami Beach police Thursday, booked on a charge of battery by strangulation and a misdemeanor charge of battery by intentionally touching, striking or causing bodily harm.
Five days before the arrest, Ross’ ex-girlfriend Jazzma Kendrick accused the “Hustlin’” singer of assaulting her and had receipts. In her now expired Instagram Stories screenshotted by People, the influencer showed off a busted lip and claimed Ross was responsible.
“It’s always good until it isn’t,” Kendrick, 39, wrote to her 468,000 followers. “If a man hits you one time, he will do it again.”
After Ross’ release on $6,000 bond, he had an unusual statement for reporters waiting outside the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
“I’m totally innocent of these fabricated allegations made against me,” said the 50-year-old who was ordered to stay away from Kendrick. “I’ll be in Dubai tomorrow, Paris Saturday, and I plan on having a bowl of rigatoni with heavy marinara Sunday. I repeat: rigatoni, heavy marinara. Thank you all for your time. Enjoy your day.”
On Instagram Monday, you can see Ross did indeed travel abroad, unbothered, with a big appetite. In his widely shared video the Carol City artist watches as a French waiter at a fancy restaurant serves him the aforementioned pasta dish tableside. (The meal actually started with a different pasta dish spooned out of a flaming wheel of cheese.)
The caption: “Bon appétit.”
In a new Story on the same day Ross was carb loading in the City of Light, Kendrick thanked followers who stood by her.
“I want you to know I’m OK,” she wrote, Complex magazine reported. “This happened about a month ago, so I’ve had time to sit with it, process it, and start healing. Speaking up wasn’t easy, but your support reminded me I made the right choice.”
As for Ross, the Star Island resident’s international dining tour must conclude by Oct. 22 — that’s when he’s due back in court for his arraignment, as per Miami-Dade County court records.
Miami Herald
Celebrity/real time news reporter Madeleine Marr has been with The Miami Herald since 2003. She has covered such features as travel, fashion and food. In 2007, she helped launch the newspaper’s daily People Page, attending red carpet events, awards ceremonies and press junkets; interviewing some of the biggest names in show business; and hosting her own online show. She is originally from New York City.