Roddy Ricch

Rodrick Wayne Moore Jr. (born October 22, 1998), known professionally as Roddy Ricch, is an American rapper and singer-songwriter from Compton, California. He rose to fame in 2018 following the release of his single "Die Young," which marked his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100. Moore's first two mixtapes, Feed Tha Streets (2017) and Feed Tha Streets II (2018) received widespread acclaim. Moore guest featured alongside Hit-Boy on Nipsey Hussle's 2019 single "Racks in the Middle"—which earned him a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance—and on Mustard's single "Ballin'" that same year, which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received a nomination for the same award.

Moore signed with Atlantic Records to release his debut studio album, Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial (2019), which debuted atop the Billboard 200. Its single, "The Box" topped the Billboard Hot 100 and received diamond certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Its follow-up, "High Fashion" (featuring Mustard) peaked within the top ten of the chart, while his guest performance on DaBaby's 2020 single "Rockstar" became his second number-one song. Moore's second studio album, Live Life Fast (2021) peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and saw moderate critical response; its lead single, "Late at Night" received platinum certification by the RIAA.

Moore has won several accolades, including a Grammy Award from ten total nominations, as well as two BET Awards, two BET Hip Hop Awards, and an American Music Award.

Early life
Rodrick Wayne Moore Jr. was born on October 22, 1998, in Compton, California. Moore grew up in a Christian household. He attended Compton High School. Moore started rapping as young as eight, and at the age of twelve, performed for at-the-time rising artist and fellow Compton native, Kendrick Lamar. He began making beats in earnest at age 16. He also had a brief stint in county jail at the time when his second commercial mixtape, Feed Tha Streets II, was released. Moore listened to Lil Wayne growing up, as well as Young Thug, Future, and Meek Mill.

2017–2018: Commercial debut, Feed Tha Streets, and Feed Tha Streets II
On November 22, 2017, Ricch released his debut commercial mixtape, Feed Tha Streets, which is also his first project. It featured songs like Position, "Chase tha Bag", "HoodRicch", and "Fucc It Up". The tape earned him praise from established rappers, such as Meek Mill, Nipsey Hussle, and 03 Greedo, as well as established record producer Mustard.

In March 2018, Ricch released his unofficial debut extended play, Be 4 Tha Fame. In May of the same year, rapper Nipsey Hussle brought Ricch out as his special guest at a PowerHouse concert in Los Angeles. On July 20, Ricch released the single, "Die Young", the lead single from his second commercial mixtape, Feed Tha Streets II. Ricch had written the song for a childhood friend, who was lost in a high-speed chase and said in a Genius interview he had written it the night that fellow rapper XXXTentacion had died from being shot on June 18. The song—which was dedicated, in part, to the childhood friend and its music video would go on to accumulate over 80 million views on YouTube and 120 million streams on Spotify. On September 27, 2018, he released the single "Ricch Forever". In October, rapper Meek Mill brought Ricch out as his special guest at a PowerHouse concert in Philadelphia, in which he also gifted Ricch a "Dreamchasers" chain for appearing on his fourth studio album, Championships, in which he was co-featured alongside fellow rappers Future and Young Thug on the song "Splash Warning", which was released a few weeks later on November 30. On October 28, Ricch released the single, "Every Season", as the second single from Feed Tha Streets II. He released the mixtape on November 2. The album, which features the singles "Die Young" and "Every Season", peaked at number 67 on the Billboard 200 chart and at number 36 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. On December 7, 2018, Ricch released a collaboration with DJ and producer Marshmello, titled "Project Dreams".

2019–2020: Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial, and success from "The Box"
On February 15, 2019, Ricch was featured alongside producer Hit-Boy on Nipsey Hussle's single "Racks in the Middle". and earning him a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance. Exactly one month later, on March 15, he was featured alongside fellow rapper Tyga on the remix of Post Malone's 2018 single, "Wow". On May 31, Ricch released the single, "Out Tha Mud". On June 28, he released a collaboration with producer Mustard on the single, "Ballin'", as part of the latter's third studio album, Perfect Ten. The song received a nomination for Best Rap/Sung Performance at the 2020 Grammy Awards.

On October 11, 2019, Ricch released the single, "Big Stepper", which serves the lead single of his debut album, Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial. Two weeks later, on October 25, he released the album's second single, "Start wit Me", which features fellow rapper Gunna. Exactly one month later, on November 25, he released the album's third single "Tip Toe", which features fellow rapper A Boogie wit da Hoodie. The album was released on December 6, 2019. It also features guest appearances from Lil Durk, Meek Mill, Mustard, and Ty Dolla Sign. The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 and spent four non-consecutive weeks on the chart, which became the longest running number one debut rap album in the US since 2003. The album contained Ricch's highest-charting single, "The Box", which was later released as the fourth single from the album on January 10, 2020, and topped the Billboard Hot 100 the following week, remaining there for eleven weeks. "High Fashion", which features Mustard, was released as the fifth single from the album on May 19, 2020.

On January 27, 2020, Ricch was featured on Meek Mill's single, "Letter to Nipsey", an ode to the now-late Nipsey Hussle. He was also co-featured alongside Gunna and producer London on da Track on A Boogie wit da Hoodie's single, "Numbers", from the latter's third studio album, Artist 2.0, which was released on February 14, 2020. He then appeared on rapper NLE Choppa's single, "Walk Em Down", which was released on March 19, 2020, and appeared on the latter's debut studio album, Top Shotta. On April 17, 2020, Ricch was featured on DaBaby's single "Rockstar", from the latter's third studio album, Blame It on Baby, which became his second number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, spending seven weeks on top, as well as reaching number one in the UK, and in several other countries. Ricch became the first artist to achieve his first two number-one singles in the same year since English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran did it in 2017. Ricch won Album of the Year at the 2020 BET Awards. He has spent eighteen cumulative weeks atop the Hot 100 so far, the most for any artist in 2020. On July 3, Ricch was featured alongside 50 Cent on Pop Smoke's posthumous single "The Woo", from Smoke's debut studio album, Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon. On August 27, Ricch appeared on Cordae's single, "Gifted", a bonus track from the latter's second studio album, From a Birds Eye View (2022). On September 30, Ricch collaborated with record label Internet Money and Don Toliver on the remix of the latter two's top-10 single, "Lemonade", which the original song is also a collaboration with Gunna and features Canadian rapper Nav; the remix appeared on the complete edition of the label's debut album, B4 the Storm.

During an interview with GQ, Ricch revealed that his second studio album is completed. However, he said that he is waiting for the right time to release it. Ricch called the album "a full-blown masterpiece. A real idea. A real body of work". On November 24, 2020, he teased towards a potential upcoming project titled Love Is Barely Real Anymore. Ricch tied with Canadian singer the Weeknd as the most nominated artists at the 2020 American Music Awards, both with eight nominations. He received six nominations at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, including for Song of the Year and Record of the Year for "The Box" and "Rockstar", respectively. Variety named him Breakthrough Artist of 2020, and Apple Music awarded him Album and Song of the Year in 2020, with Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial and "The Box" respectively being the most-streamed album and song of the year globally on the platform. He was ranked third on the Billboard Year-End chart for Top Artists.

2021: Live Life Fast
On March 14, 2021, Ricch officially released a live performance of an unreleased song called "Heartless", which he debuted at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. On April 2, Ricch released a collaboration with fellow rapper 42 Dugg, titled "4 Da Gang", which appeared as the lead single from the latter's commercial mixtape, Free Dem Boyz. Ricch was also co-featured alongside singer and rapper Bryson Tiller and rapper Lil Baby on DJ Khaled's single "Body in Motion", from the latter's self-titled twelfth studio album, Khaled Khaled, which was released on April 30. On May 21, Ricch released a collaboration with fellow rapper Birdman, titled "Stunnaman", which features rapper Lil Wayne, on May 21. On June 4, Ricch released the single, "Late at Night", the lead single from his second studio album, Live Life Fast. Ricch also released a collaboration with fellow rapper Bino Rideaux, titled "Lemme Find Out", on October 1. On December 3, Ricch also joined Gunna and Future on a remix of their single, "Too Easy", which appeared on Gunna's third studio album, DS4Ever.

On September 14, Ricch posted a story to Instagram, in which he revealed the album title. He used the album title again on social media posts a couple days later. On November 30, in preparation for the release of the album, Ricch deleted all his previous posts from Instagram and announced the release date and revealed its cover art the following day. The album was released on December 17. The album features new guest appearances from Future, Kodak Black, 21 Savage, Takeoff, Jamie Foxx, Alex Isley, Fivio Foreign, Lil Baby, and Bibi Bourelly. It features guest appearances from his previous album from Ty Dolla Sign, and Gunna. However, Ricch's second studio album failed to meet the standards of his first studio album, because Live Life Fast was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 67, based on six reviews, while on the other hand, Live Life Fast received largely negative reception from audiences, leading many people to believe that Ricch became another prominent young artist to succumb to the sophomore slump.

2022–23: Feed Tha Streets III and collaborations
To start off 2022, Ricch released a collaboration with fellow rapper Fredo Bang, titled "Last ones Left". On May 12, 2022, Ricch was featured on Post Malone's single, "Cooped Up", which appeared on the latter's fourth studio album, Twelve Carat Toothache. On June 24, 2022, Ricch released his second extended play, and his first official extended play titled The Big 3. Later on September 15, 2022, he was featured on rapper Symba's song "Never Change" which also has a music video that was released in February 2023. On October 22, Ricch announced the release date and revealed its cover art for Feed Tha Streets III. On November 18, the mixtape was released through Atlantic Records and Bird Vision Entertainment. The mixtape has 15 tracks and has guest appearances from Lil Durk and Ty Dolla Sign. The mixtape was supported with three singles, "Stop Breathing", "Aston Martin Truck", and "Twin" (featuring Lil Durk). Feed Tha Streets lll debuted and peaked at number 14 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 39,000 album-equivalent units in it’s first week. This became Rich’s third consecutive Top-20 debut on the chart and the mixtape descended to number 109 in its second week of charting.

In 2023, Ricch was featured on rapper Blxst's song "Passionate". The song appears as the second track on Just for Clarity 2, the third extended play by Blxst and the song has a well-made music video. On March 24, 2023, Roddy Ricch collaborated with the record label Internet Money and rapper Kodak Black on a track titled "I Remember". On May 5, 2023, Ricch was a featured artist alongside rapper Nardo Wick on the single "Pissy", by rapper Gucci Mane. This marked Ricch's first collaboration with either of the two artists, and the song later appeared as the third single on Gucci's sixteenth studio album, Breath of Fresh Air. On June 9, 2023, Ricch was featured on rapper Rob49's song "TRX", this is Ricch's first time working with Rob also, and the song is from his sixth mixtape titled, 4GOD ll. Later in the year, On August 11, 2023, Ricch released a single with rapper Trippie Redd titled "Closed Doors", There is a Lyrical Lemonade assisted music video to go with it and the song later appeared on Trippie's fifth commercial mixtape, A Love Letter to You 5, which was released a few hours after the song. On November 9, 2023, he released a collaboration with singer Rosemarie titled "Is It Real".

2024: The Navy Album
Ricch's first feature of 2024 appeared on close friend and collaborator Gunna's album One of Wun on the song "Let It Breathe", released on May 10, 2024. Exactly three weeks later, on May 31, 2024, Ricch released the song “Survivor's Remorse”. which is rumored to be the lead single for his upcoming third studio album The Navy Album.

Feuds
A beef between Ricch and American rapper Lil Uzi Vert had begun during late 2022. The beef began when Roddy Ricch was on set for DJ Khaled's song "Keep Going"; and the video shoot shows Ricch wearing big, clunky boots, Uzi later posted a picture of Ricch's boots on their Instagram with a caption saying, "Wtffff... Who is this??? I only saw the boots. I hope (it's) a normal person... BIG BOOTS". Ricch responded on his 2022 single "Aston Martin Truck", where Ricch rapped, "N****s not on my level, why you mad I your ? / Had to say it ’cause you talkin’, I ain’t even tryna rub it in". In 2023, Lil Uzi dissed Ricch on their third studio album, Pink Tape (2023), on the song titled '' Died and came Back". On the song, Uzi rapped, "But you ain't even go get your chains back (Huh?) / They ran up in your crib and took your platinum plaques (Yeah) / I thought that you was ****, what's up with that? (What's up with it?) / I like the Crips 'cause the money in my pocket blue / I be with the Bloods and they all say, "Soowoo" / What you paid for your rent, I paid that for my shoes / If you try to diss me, boy, that's a lose-lose / Moncler on me since Luv Is Rage 2 / When I made the first Luv Is Rage, it was Canadian Goose", referring to Ricch's association with the Park Village Crips.

Personal life
In April 2020, Ricch's girlfriend Allie Minati gave birth to their son.

In August 2019, Ricch was arrested for felony domestic violence, the charges of which were later dropped by the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office due to insufficient evidence. On June 11, 2022, Ricch was arrested on weapons charges after him and members of his crew were stopped at a security checkpoint near Citi Field, where law enforcement found a loaded firearm, additional ammunition, and a large-capacity magazine. The charges were later dropped.

Artistry
"I feel like the problem with us nowadays is we want everything right now. But the music isn't gonna be progressive when you're putting something out every three months, because you ain't been through nothing; you still feel like how you felt when you [last] dropped the music. To me, stuff doesn't happen in my life every single day. Maybe for some people it does, but my life don't happen that fast. I have to give myself time to actually go through things so I can speak on it, and have a new understanding of life. It's not like I make music that's not my life, so I feel like I need to give my life time to inspire me."

On the transcending themes of his music, Ricch draws inspiration from his life, stating: "As I experience life, my music is going to evolve. At the same time, I still do tell the stories from my world because there are unlimited stories and unlimited people from that place. I'll always represent them. As my life begins to change and I do different things, I still want to be able to tap in and relate to them". Cady Lang of Time magazine noted Ricch's "remarkable musical style as a rapper combines his West Coast [hip hop] roots with the sound of trap music and Chicago drill rap, which gets an extra gravitas with his lyrics that range from pondering the tough realities of life to bouts of uninhibited bravado". Ricch has been recognized for his raspy voice "that works wonders with vocal filters". Paul Thompson of Vulture called Ricch "an undeniably talented vocalist and occasionally a compelling songwriter", opining how he "frequently adopts the same syntax and vocal intonations as Young Thug". His music style blends rapping and singing. Ricch has cited Kendrick Lamar, who is also from his hometown of Compton, as a musical influence. He has stated that rapper Speaker Knockerz is his biggest influence, along with the "basis" of his music coming from him. Ricch also credits Young Thug, Future, and Gucci Mane as influences.

Discography
Studio albums
 * Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial (2019)
 * Live Life Fast (2021)
 * The Navy Album (2024)