Fly Like A Boss: Rick Ross Makes The Ultimate Power Moves From His Custom G550

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

BY TERRENCE J

PHOTOGRAPHY NICK GARCIA

GROOMING CESAR FERRETTE

BOOKING LAURA SCHREFFLER

SHOT ON LOCATION AT THE OPA LOCKA AIRPORT

It always went much deeper than rap for Rick “Rozay” Ross. The nine-time Grammy Award-nominated, multi-platinum artist always knew that he was going to be flying high, soaring above the rest with the strength of his ambition and will. And he’s proven that, by going from “Hustlin’” to sitting down with President Barack Obama at the White House, starring alongside Eddie Murphy in Coming 2 America, and cementing his place on the New York Times bestseller list — twice. He’s also received billions of streams, dozens of multi-platinum certifications, and five #1 debuts on the Billboard Top 200.

Beyond the music, the 49-year-old luxury connoisseur is also a strategic entrepreneur, and has built one of the most formidable empires in the world, spanning numerous restaurants, personal product launches, collaborations, and a real estate portfolio worth tens of millions of dollars. His business interests include Wingstop, Checkers, Belaire Rosé + Sovereign Brands, Rap Snacks, High Tolerance, Slippery Soap LLC, the Rick Ross Car & Bike Show, the Rick Ross Boss Up Conference, and, of course, Maybach Music Group — the label he founded, which helped break superstars like Meek Mill and Wale.

And now, as Ross continues to expand his kingdom, he sat down to talk about a long-held dream that finally came true: having his own private plane. A lifelong lover of transportation, Rick’s passion for pristine craftsmanship started early. At just 13 years old, he worked at a local car wash in Miami, falling in love with the art of automobiles. That same meticulous passion fuels his aviation journey today. His personal jet — a striking Gulfstream G550 emblazoned with “Rich Forever” on the side — stands as a testament to his commitment to living life at the highest altitude, blending business and pleasure with effortless style.

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

We chose to capture his love of the high life for the inaugural cover of our latest title, Haute Jets, which redefines what it means to be part of the jet set. Ross truly embodies the spirit of the skies, celebrating the luxury of private aviation while inspiring a new generation to dream bigger, fly higher, and hustle harder. Fresh off the success of his latest album, Too Good To Be True, and his celebrated Rick Ross Car & Bike Show at the Promise Land in Fayetteville, GA, he continues to evolve, taking all that he’s built and channeling it into his rawest, realest, and richest work to date.

Haute Jets enlisted the help of TV host and entertainment personality Terrence J (a.k.a. Terrence Jenkins), who headed down to Ross’s private hangar at the Opa Locka airport — a hangar complete with a wild luxury-and-vintage car collection, video games galore, and a bulletproof wine cellar — to do a deep dive into his private jet (a private jet that, coincidentally, he manifested on his last Haute Living cover shoot). Now, we come full circle.

[Your debut album, Port of Miami] was released in 2006. You couldn’t escape [your track] “Hustlin’.” Now, almost 20 years later, you’re in your own private jet. Explain how that feels for you after all these decades of success.
Just reflecting on where I come from — right here in Carroll City, Miami — man, it means a lot to me. All the hard work, that positive energy. At some point, it became magnetic. Once it became magnetic, the success became addictive. You know what I mean? And when you’re doing something that you really love and are passionate about, everything just falls into place. There’s no way I could have seen this transpiring. I grew up riding by Opa Locka Airport my whole life. So, when I pull up here now, it’s most definitely [a wild feeling].

I’ve charted my fair share of jets around here, but when I came to see you, I saw a different side of the hangars that I’d never been to. Talk to me about this hangar and how this whole thing is set up.
No, this isn’t what everybody gets. This is definitely the most exclusive hanger on the strip. Jeff Bezos, you know what I mean? You have to be one of the big homies like that, or Khaled, or one of the heavyweights out here, without a doubt. And there’s a lot of other homies who move more discreetly, but there’s a lot of paper out here.

And to explain that to somebody, a lot of people might have private jets. That’s kind of like your car being parked outside. To have a hangar is like your own parking spot slash chill spot.
Yeah, that’s a garage for the jet. You could easily go from $75,000 to $100,000 a month just for your hangar.

Just for the hangar? So, we’re at $ 1.2 million in the street?
Yeah, just for your hangar. Let’s say, if you’ve got a G550, you have to have a certain amount of square footage space. And I’m just saying, you’ll find those at 50-gram range to 100 easy. And what you have is your 24-hour staff, whenever you are landing in, coming in, coming out, the whole nine yards.

And I mean, I know the Lambo at the end. There’s probably a million dollars worth of cars here at least. And then, I see about $50,000 in video games.
No, no, no, we’re not going to do that. But my 257 Bel Airs, the red one, that’s half a million [dollars]. I spent a quarter million just for the silver and green one. That’s $750,000 just for those two [old school cars].

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

And then, I see you’ve got a wine locker? It’s a small wine compound. It zapped my finger when I went to touch it.
Man, that’s just something that… shout out the old man. I like to call him old man, cool dude, Sea Aquarium guy. But what he did was that he created me a custom wine cellar, champagne chiller, just different vibes. On one side of the glass, it’s temperature controlled. The other side is like a more natural vibe, room temp. So, it’s just a funny concoction he made me. It cost a pretty penny. It is bulletproof. Wine, I don’t need it bulletproof, but he put it on the list.

OK, so walk me through the plane. I know we’re on a Gulfstream.
This is a G550, but the interior was redone like the G600. That’s the bed in the back. You can have 17 to 18 people in it comfortably.

Now, at one point in my career, I was looking at private jets. And then I realized: to buy a private jet is a different thing. There’s a different level. Your credit needs to have credit. Your finances need to have finances. Walk me through the math of why you decided to get one for your business and your operations.
The Rozay brand, it’s not just, you know, rap battles and rhymes and shows. And, of course, I still love to do those; that’s why I still do them. But it’s most definitely a bigger brand now. We are global. We are international. Last year alone, I was the most booked artist in Dubai. But as you grow and the older you get, you find ways to make it that much easier on you; your time means that much more. So before, when I was going to fly, even if I was, let’s say, flying to Vegas, I would have to get up in Miami at six a.m. to be at a seven or eight a.m. flight. You get over there just to make sure if anything goes wrong on Delta, you can still catch the next flight. So, you basically spend a whole day just traveling, and then you do the same coming home. So, we cut all that out.

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

Large companies like Walmart, for instance, who have different vice presidents who have to fly to different places, they do a whole fleet, hit multiple stops in one day. So, you’re on a schedule at this point. You might have to be in one city in the morning, one city at night.
And end up back home in the middle of the night. And that’s exactly what we did. We put on the Millennium, the tour with all the little homies, Ray J, Boosie Badazz, Plies. I wanted to make sure my new artist, Nino Breeze, was a part of the Millennium Tour. So, I got on the Millennium Tour and did it in a way, timing-wise, where we could go do the Millennium Tour during the day, then we jump on the jet and go handle our business. We just went to Drai’s in Vegas. I love Drai’s by the way, it’s the number one spot in Vegas.

You just opened a dentist office too?
A dentist office. Shout out to my partner, Mario Montoya, the number one celeb dentist in the game.

So how do you go from being a client in the dentist office, because you were a client there for a while. And now you’ve expanded the brand.
Why not? You know, once I realized how successful he was as a dentist, he was a man of his word. And I just knew, I understood what his brand was capable of doing if he brought it to the US. It’s a lot of young ladies, it’s a lot of people who may not be comfortable just yet traveling to Colombia for their own personal reasons but let’s make it easier for them.
As a boss, that’s what our responsibility is. How can we make this easier and make it more accessible? And that’s what we did. And man, it’s taking off right now. Sandy Springs, Atlanta, everybody, like I say, gets that billion-dollar smile.

Obviously, this is a work toy, you’ve got the yacht as well. How hands-on were you with customizing this?
I just wanted to make it as comfortable as possible, you know, but when you’re dealing with jets, it’s easy to run up $75,000 or $100,000. I just wanted to stay in my range. What I was going to be comfortable with myself, and with my team and my family. There are a few times that I fly alone, let’s say, if I’m going to see my mom, whatever it is, but, you know, other than that, it’s all about business.

And you don’t charter this?
No, I haven’t chartered it. I don’t plan on it. Personal use only. If it’s not for you or a loved one in the family or the team, it’s right here in the hangar.

And you have your own stewardess fully dedicated. Is [the exterior of the plane] a wrap?
No, this is not a wrap. I had it painted. This is a custom, half a million-dollar paint job. This is something that I really was patient about — planning and strategizing. For a long time, I was in a position where I could have gone and bought a jet, but would I still have been comfortable being the entrepreneur I am? I wasn’t ready yet. So, I flew Delta and whatever else, United, whoever else it took to go get that money. We did it for a long time. I watched everybody charter the jets to take the pictures because they get a lot of likes. I get it. But I just said, I got to be patient. I’m going to do that once I own it.

Even doing a black paint job is a significant thing because, I mean, the sun, you might have to refresh this all the time. If you get a black paint job, that means you’re making a real investment.
This is the Golden Eagle.

Is that the name of it?
That’s the name of it.

What does it mean?
Oh, man, it’s just something about the eagle. You know, the eagle’s always meant something to me. You get to see from a long way. Birds got to flap their wings all day. Eagles can just go up and glide.

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

This can glide for 14 hours. Well, that’s what your captain said. They said this can go 14, maybe 16, depending on the weight.
I don’t want to just fly 20 hours straight without stopping. I can’t do it. This can go from Miami to Paris nonstop? Let’s say, for instance, London is one of my favorite spots because there’s a lot of cool shopping over there. Every boutique, every vibe that is there. So, let’s say if I was going to Dubai, of course, I’ve gone straight to Dubai a lot of times. But just let me get out and get some fresh air. I would love to layover in London.

Would you have [fish and chips from London on the plane on the way home]?
That’s mandatory. Mandatory. I know exactly where to go. It’s the finest; the number one. You’d go every day.

Let’s do a Dubai trip. Are you a villa guy, do you do a hotel?
Me personally, I would rather be in a suite in a hotel over Airbnb or anything. Any day.
I love the energy. I love seeing other people. I love the vibe. To me, that’s one of the best parts of being other places. I really don’t want to be secluded in a crib. No. I want to walk through the lobby. I want to see the vibe, see what the rooftop looks like, who else is staying here tonight. We might have some business we could chop up. H&R makes sure we get picked up in Rolls-Royce’s; that’s just part of the vibe when you go to Dubai.

What’s a gas bill — or a snapshot range gas bill — from Miami to Dubai? Like, what are we looking at in expenses to get this thing one way?
I remember when I was having a conversation with my captain and I said, how much you think it takes to fill up one of the wings with fuel? He said maybe $30,000 or $35,000 per wing.

This bad boy has Rolls-Royce engines.
Without a doubt.

Do you record up here? Are you thinking of rhymes as well? Does your brain still go there?
Actually, I do more of that on the yacht than I do on the plane. I draw a lot of inspiration here and absorb it.

So, you’re not straight. Jump on a plane to sleep. There’s a vibe. There’s a curation. There’s a moment. 
That’s what we’re going to do. First and foremost, let’s say a prayer. Then, it’s how do we execute whatever we’re going to do? We’re going to do something big for me to pull the jet out and go. Something’s happening, because you don’t just pull this out. Most definitely, I like to go through the thought process of how I could execute whatever I’m coming here to do and take it to that next level. Make sure whoever my business partners are understand the value of Rozay and understand that we’ve earned all this.

Here, you have the hangar; on the yacht, you have the slip. How are you able to maintain your own sanity with all of these businesses, especially being so hands-on?
I’m going to tell you the secret for Rozay and that’s personally because everything that I’m a part of, I genuinely love it. I genuinely fuck with it. I’m decorating my home on Star Island. I just left there. We just did cardio riding around the isle on the bikes. It’s because I love it. Everything else we are doing: the dentist office, this is something that once I got my teeth done, I was like, man, I’ve been smoking weed all that time, had brown teeth, I should have done this shit five years earlier. And when I came home, all my homies calling me, who did your teeth? Man, I got to go and do it. And that’s when I understood the value of what Mario Montoya would mean if he relocated. And that’s how everything else is, whether it’s the spirits, whether it’s the potato chips. That’s the fastest moving bubbles in the game, as well as Bambu, the fastest growing rum in the game. So, it’s the teams. I love to do partnerships, but you got to be the very best. That way it keeps it easy for me, and I know what I got to do.

You’ve been on the cover of Haute three times. And the last time you did the cover [in 2018, the team said that] you were sitting in a Rolls-Royce, manifesting this moment. And now, you’re on the inaugural cover of Haute Jets.
I manifested this on a Haute cover shoot, I did. I was just being real. The same way I sit on my jet now, before I get into anything else, I say a prayer and then, now, let’s focus. How can we take it to the next level? I’m continuing to manifest those same vibes.

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

Let’s talk about manifesting. You’ve got multiple $100 million
houses (including Star Island), you’ve got a jet, a yacht. What is
next for Rick Ross?
It’s always something bigger and better. A billion.

So, we’re inching towards that B.
I won’t stop.

As you reach these different thresholds, do you find joy in all of these levels?
Of course. And it could go down to the smallest thing. It’s like Star Island. In the middle of the island, there’s a collection of trees that I’ve never seen. I intentionally take my shoes and socks off and walk in the grass. That’s a different grass that go between my toes. That’s $6,500 per square foot multiplied by 15,000; that should have you at $95 million, and that’s the play I just made a year and a half ago. There aren’t many plays that you could multiply by numbers like that, but when you find them, you stay close to them, and you learn to master them. So real estate is something I’ve also mastered, as well as being creative and rambunctious online, promoting my different brands, my artists, my music, my visuals.
Everybody knows that my career is set in stone, but I still enjoy going out to the clubs. I still love popping big shit. But the difference with us is that I love to show the young entrepreneurs. That’s why it only made sense we were the first to be on the cover for Haute Jets.

Is there one more Maybach Music brewing?
There is, most definitely. I got a new album on the way. Rozay has it.

Is there anything you can tell me about it?
Man, I’m going to just let y’all know I’m going to Paris to shoot the video with Pharrell in the next week and a half.

Maybach is one of my favorite series of yours. Have you put it up?
I haven’t put it up, but once it means so much to you, you just can’t do it if you recorded a song with another big artist and just want to say It doesn’t go that way. It has to fall in line musically. I have collaborations with some of the biggest icons in the world that I have yet to release because sometimes, musically, I don’t think it could have met up to what I would have expected for myself or one of the true Rozay fans would have expected.

Any final thoughts right now on your head space? Haute Jets, Rick Ross, 20-year anniversary, the Belaire is flowing. Just any final thoughts on your mind state right now?
Oh man, accept it. Success is addictive. That positive energy is magnetic. For some reason, that stuck with me because I said it a little while ago, but you’re amazing. Go be amazing. Allow the world to see you be amazing. You can no longer be shy. If you buy the Rolls-Royce for half a million and you pull up to the intersection and everyone’s looking at you, don’t put your head down.

So, walk me through this incredible paint job. I see the MMG logo on the back.
What makes the tail number unique is that it’s the actual zip code for where we are. This is the community I grew up in. Our zip code 33055, our area code 305, so I had to pull a few moves, make a few calls.

That is the first time I’ve heard you can do a customized tail number. And the rest, you designed it all yourself?
Most definitely. If you walk into that office, you will see a replica of the Golden Eagle that I had for the last five years. I knew this was what the energy was going to be, what the vibe was going to be.

When you were thinking about jets over these years, were there certain considerations? Like, how do you go about buying a jet?
I was just studying the game. I knew I had a long way to go. I knew it wasn’t a rush, but there was something once I had seen that G550, I said, that’s the big boy. You can put the family and the homies on that and go straight to wherever you want to go, enjoy life, come back, go get some money. Whatever it is you need to do, that G550 will make it happen. I was patient.
I just stacked my money up. I was patient. You know, we flew Delta forever. I forgot all the credentials Delta gave me.

What are some of the unanticipated things that happen with a private jet that people wouldn’t know? Like the bird shit maintenance. But seriously, what things happened?
Oh, man, you’re going to learn that story. The first year, you’re going to learn what it costs to really own a jet. And then, you know, it’s coming up for certain maintenances, and this, and that. And, you know, you’re going to get new brakes and that.

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

Do those calls go directly to you or is there a person in between that deal?
No, I got a team that’s in place and that handles everything.

I got to take a look at this car collection while we’re walking through it. I had no idea. What’s the inspiration for this? Did you grow up seeing one that stuck out in your mind? Was it an old movie?
Yeah, since we were kids. It’s something about being a young Miami hustler, you wanted that recognition. Because it was easy to come from nothing, but you understood what was going to get me that recognition. One of those Chevrolets, one of them 1971s, one of those 1973s, crop top Caprices, you were going to be on your A game. But now that I’m a veteran in the game, the 59s. Rick Ross The 59s. Original. One owner. Both of these original, one owner. The only thing I did was change the top; I put a red top, I took the white off and put a red top. For me, by having so many cars, I understand, and I pace myself.
I’m not in a rush to do everything that I want to do to. Let’s just make sure they’re running. Let’s make sure they’re clean. Let’s make sure, you know, they feel that love.

How special is it now to have this level of a fleet at your jet?
I’m going to keep it real. I had never seen anybody do it. It’s a lot of money out here. I’m sure it’s a lot of big homies who are doing something that I just don’t know about. But on this side, the way I’m doing it, I haven’t seen it done. And just to keep it all the way real, it’s a lot of moves for all of us to make together because this is only the beginning. It really is.

When I get a new car, I’m intentional about the first song I play in it. Do you remember when you first got the jet, was there a particular album of yours or a particular album of any artist, any zone musically that you were in?
The playlist is something serious — it’s something that I’m passionate about. So, my playlist is second to none, it’s immaculate, and it’s different vibes that you got to be in. But once I start going into that real deep shit, put all the smile, funny shit to the side, that’s when I’m going to pull that Curtis Mayfield out. I’m going to play music of young icons who sacrificed their life for this shit. That’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to play some of that Notorious B.I.G., some of that Tupac, some of that Curtis Mayfield. I’m going to keep going. Who gave their life for this shit?

For you right now, with all of these video games, all of this, is there anything that you would tell young Rozay about the path that he’s on? What’s a piece of advice you would give him?
Man, first and foremost, God is great. You understand? You got to have the vision. And that comes from somewhere else. You got to have the vision. God is great. And then once you make up your mind, okay, God, great. I get it, I’ll never fold. I’ll never quit. I know what the vision is. I understand the plan. The plan is this. Do we understand the type of time this could take? That’s not a problem. That’s too easy. Everything that’s worth having takes time. We get it. But what we’re going to do is push ourselves to the greatest heights. Everything is a competition. That’s just the way we’re going to take it. And don’t take it personally, because we’re not going to take anything personally. Let’s enjoy doing what we’re doing. Let’s smile sometimes but let’s be dead ass serious with every move we make.

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

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