shoutout: Julia Beverly @ Ozone Magazine
Everybody’s got a hustle nowadays, and Rick Ross’s baby mama Tia is no different. You all saw her in the YouTube video shopping for a fur coat with 50 Cent (even though she lives in the humidity capital of the U.S., Miami.. but I digress).
Below are snippets from her upcoming book (I was really hoping the cover was a joke, but it’s not… doesn’t G-Unit Publishing have any decent graphic designers?). In Ross’ defense, when I read through it, all I saw was this:
“He claimed in his financial affidavit he spent $50 a month on clothing total yet I knew Will [Ross] was a clothing and sneaker freak, always buying himself and Lil’ Will the newest gear. The baby had new Gucci sneakers every month…. While I literally watched him make millions, I struggled to take care of my three sons, the littlest being his….My Infinity QX56 was gone…. “Where the fuck is my truck?” … Will must of had the Infinity he bought for me two years earlier removed from the parking lot while we were in court….I had a lot of expensive stuff in the truck that I wanted back. Designer sunglasses, my baby’s car seat and toys, children’s DVDs, dozens of CDs, a duffle bag full of brand name party dresses and jeans I had packed to take to the cleaners that day.”
SMH. He bought you an Infinity, which is filled with designer sunglasses, brand name party dresses, and baby Gucci sneakers but you’re “struggling”? O-K. Here’s the full snippet:
I looked at my watch, it was 4:30pm on January 21, 2009, the day I had been waiting to come for eight months. It was the day of the deposition in the child support case I had filed against the father of my third son, William Leonard Roberts Jr. also known as the big-time rapper (not the notorious drug dealer, don’t get them confused) Rick Ross.
I had started this battle against William 17 months earlier after our tumultuous four-year relationship filled with passion and pain. My lawyer Ileana M. Almeida had spent the last eight months trying to get Will’s lawyer Allan Zamren to make Will do the deposition for the case. They’d canceled two times already so I was surprised that William had finally showed up and was glad we were gonna to get things going. Ever since he’d become a celebrity, Will had been a different person. That mixed with his touring and promotions schedule and the life of a rap star is what made it so hard for anything in the child support case to move forward. His attitude also made things difficult.
The deposition took place at my lawyer’s office, which was across the street from the Broward County Courthouse in Ft. Lauderdale. Will showed up with an entourage but only he, his lawyer, the court reporter, Ms. Almeida and myself were allowed in the room. The focus of the day was William’s financial details and his level of interaction and responsibility with our son, William Leonard Roberts III, or as I call him, Lil’ Will. Ileana and I wanted to gather information for my child support case since Will and I would be going to trial at some point over how much he would have to pay in child support. In order for my case to be fought fairly, my lawyer and I needed to know the correct information for how much William would and should be able to provide for his son.
Will was dressed in a nice custom tailored burgundy linen suit with brown and burgundy Gucci dress shoes. He wore no jewelry but had on his Rick Ross sunglasses during the whole deposition. I don’t know why, we were inside. It wasn’t sunny in the office. Will never wore sunglasses before he got his deal so it kinda made me laugh when I saw him with them now.
It was a bit overwhelming to finally be sitting in the deposition after all the time of the time spent trying to get there. Hearing Will talk about where he lived, what he did for a living, how he was signed to Def Jam and Slip-N-Slide, was managed by Poe Boy, it was all so familiar but he was such a stranger. I knew Will was going to lie throughout the whole case. He didn’t want me to have give me a dime of his money but I didn’t understand why he didn’t want to take care of Lil’ Will properly. How did it get so bad?
It was a long and frustrating day. From the beginning Will was nervous and uncomfortable and so was I. For over six hours with a short lunch break in between, Ileana drilled Will and she covered a lot of ground. As the day went on the cagier he got. His partial financial records we had been given made no sense and as Ileana asked him to explain certain items, Will would refuse to elaborate. He claimed in his financial affidavit he spent $50 a month on clothing total yet I knew Will was a clothing and sneaker freak, always buying himself and Lil’ Will the newest gear. The baby had new Gucci sneakers every month. Ileana had a list of Will’s charges at the Gucci store, and other clothing stores and brand name chains for thousands of dollars at a time and William would explain that it was his mother and sister using his card to shop, not him. When Ileana asked him about the expense of his custom diamond chains, pieces and jewelry, Will swerved around the questions saying he didn’t buy anything, it was either his boy Gun Play’s jewelry or it was promotional stuff he got from jewelers, that he would swap out. Even the custom diamond piece of his actual face. Who would want to swap that? He wouldn’t say what he paid for one piece of jewelry. The affidavit said Will spent $200 a month on food. I know how that man ate, $200 wasn’t gonna make a dent no matter how much McDonalds he said he ate.
The problem was none of William’s financial records made sense and only half of them were provided. He said he had only one checking account, we knew he had two. After selling two gold records, both being number one albums and making several guest appearances on some big records, Will claimed he had only made $202,439 a year in 2006 and 2007. That just seemed off.
Ileana was a beast but Will spent a majority of the time dodging her questions or gave her nonsensical answers. If she asked him anything about money he basically directed her to talk to his accountant or his mother who handled all his business and personal finances. William mentioned his mother over and over during the deposition but it was no surprise, she was always right there in my face during our relationship.
There were points in the deposition that Ileana really pressed Will on. Only because they just didn’t make sense. He owned eight houses and the one he bought last year he put $250,000 down on, and it cost over $1.2 million. If Will was only making $202,439 a year how could he afford a putting $250,000 down on a house and also pay for his other houses, his leased Escalade and Maybach. He didn’t own his cars, just leased them.
I just sat there and listened as Will pretended he didn’t make much money as a successful rapper and his expenses were almost more than he actually made. I knew that wasn’t true. Will could definitely afford to do more than buy his son fancy sneakers he was only gonna get dirty and grow out of. But I wasn’t allowed to say anything during the deposition. The only time I talked was when Will told Ileana he provided heath insurance for our son. I had to speak up and let them know Lil’ Will was on Medicaid and William had not gotten his son any health insurance.
We needed to cut the day short and end at 5:00pm so I could pick Lil’ Will up from day care near our home in Miramar, 45 minutes away. I was anxious to get out of there and pick up the baby. My other two boys, DeAngelo, who’s 12 and DeAndre, who’s 10, already had arrangements for when they got of school a few hours earlier but I had to pick up Lil’ Will and continue the deposition another day.
Will had been abrasive all during questioning. I knew he wasn’t happy to be there but ultimately, neither was I. If he just would’ve taken care of his son and made a deal with me for support outside of the courts, it wouldn’t have gotten to this point. But Will had bugged out on me, refusing to help pay bills and rent to the degree that he could. While I literally watched him make millions, I struggled to take care of my three sons, the littlest being his. So I was just trying to get what I was due. I wasn’t asking for anything outrageous—$4000 a month is nothing crazy. Especially when you’re driving around in a Maybach, rapping about how much money you’re making.
I watched the next several minutes click by and listened while Ileana wrapped up with her questioning for the day. At 4:45pm they let William leave. He got out 15 minutes before me so that he would be completely gone when I exited the building and we wouldn’t have a confrontation. When security made sure he had vacated the premises they told me I could be excused.
I said goodbye to everyone in the office and headed outside toward the parking lot ready to jump the road and go pick up Lil’ Will. When I walked to the lot my heart dropped. My Infinity QX56 was gone.
“Where the fuck is my truck?” I said to myself. And then I knew it. Will must of had the Infinity he bought for me two years earlier, removed from the parking lot while we were in court. He had to have gotten another key from the dealer and had one his boys from his entourage drive it away.
I knew Will’s lawyer would still be in Ileana’s office so I rushed back up, burst inside said to everyone there, “The truck is gone. My truck is gone. Will took my truck.”
“What?” Mr. Zamren asked.
“Are you sure?” Ileana followed.
“Yeah, I’m sure. I know where I parked it and it’s not there.”
Ileana directed her attention to Will’s attorney. “Can you call you client and ask if he took the truck because we need to see if he took it or if it might have been towed.”
“I parked legally,” I assured her. “I parked in your parking lot. William took the truck. I know it. That’s something he would do. He threatened to take the truck before but that was like a year ago.”
Mr. Zamren called Will and he answered. “William, Tia’s truck is gone and she has to pick you son up from school. I have one question, did you take the truck?”
“Yeah, I took it,” Will told him.
“Okay, thank you,” he responded and hung up then turned to me and shook his head. “I am so sorry. I had no idea he was going to do that. I’m really sorry. Do you have anyone to pick up your son?”
Mr. Zamren really felt awful. I could tell he was a good guy even though he was a lawyer. He just had a difficult client. I was so angry but there was nothing to do at that moment. I couldn’t make myself look bad. I had to focus on getting Lil’ Will dealt with. I stepped away to a private area, called my sister Ebony and arranged for her to go get him then called my friend Biya who lived close to the courthouse to come pick me up. Then I went back to talk to the attorneys.
I had a lot of expensive stuff in the truck that I wanted back. Designer sunglasses, my baby’s car seat and toys, children’s DVDs, dozens of CDs, a duffle bag full of brand name party dresses and jeans I had packed to take to the cleaners that day. My lawn chair I used when I watched my son’s play football and baseball, all of my chargers, personal paperwork.
I had no idea how I would get it all back but I felt like the lawyers should at least try to. I knew I would never see the truck again. Fuck it, anyway. Yeah, I loved that truck but if Will wanted to use it as a weapon against me, he could have it. It only made him look bad in court.
By the time Biya picked me up I was steaming. I was so angry over what had happened that day but also everything Will had put me through the past five years since I first met him. It wasn’t just the child support case that was getting me down. It was all of it. How he treated me like he was better than me and smarter than me during our whole relationship, how when I dated him it was almost like I dated his momma because she was so involved in his life, how his pathetic first baby’s mama did everything she could to disrespect me every step of the way and he did nothing, how he verbally and physically abused me, how I left my marriage to be with him.
This was the last straw. I didn’t know what I was going to do but I had reached my limit. As an overall nice and patient, caring person, I could get mean. I could play dirty. Up until this point I tried hard to let things be dealt with the right way without making Will look bad. I was being generous. He was a man that barely visited his baby, didn’t want to pay child support and didn’t care if his son was stranded at day care? I could play this game also. He was about to see. I decided it was time for exposure. I had been nice and quiet but you have to set the record straight sometimes. William was a fake, a phony, from his background to his lyrics. And if had to be me to clear that up for everyone and let them know the truth, so let it be.
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