This is one of those stories that hits close to home: in 2008, it was revealed by The Smoking Gun that rapper Rick Ross (who sometimes likes to write it Ke$ha style, Rick Ro$$) once worked as a corrections officer, and when "YouTube entertainer" DJ Vlad Lyubovny "questioned his street cred," Ross's crew allegedly beat him up, leaving him with a broken eye socket. After two years in court, a Manhattan federal jury found in DJ Vlad's favor, awarding him $300,000 in damages. "As an individual that covers breaking news in the hip hop world...I am grateful that the jury punished Rick Ross for setting me up, when all I was doing was covering the news and making commentary," Lyubovny said after the verdict. A victory for bloggers and vloggers everywhere!
Ross also seemed relatively chipper when MTV found him after the verdict: "I've been fighting a $4 million lawsuit for the last two years. My defense was a success...God bless America! The lawsuit is done. Even though I plan to appeal the decision, I thank the courts for the monetary decision that they made. They were extremely lenient, I appreciate that. It's back to the business for the boss."
