It ’s a crisp spring daylight in New York and a light-green Wingstop food truck is parked in front of Extra Butter , a boutique sneaker storage in Manhattan ’s Lower East Side . There ’s a green carpeting roll out in front of the door of the shop class , along with a protection guard and a fair sex holding a clipboard . Outside , the city ado with bodily function . Inside , rapper Rick Ross is getting ready to lionise Wingstop .
The Miami rap kingpin has a retentive account with the Texas - based mountain chain restaurant . Besides knock about the company on song ’s like " MC Hammer , " " The Devil Is a Lie , " and " Thug Cry , " he ’s also the proud possessor of over 25 franchises , open his first store in Memphis back in 2011 . In a brand - obsessed macrocosm where Outkast ’s Big Boiputs his name on a dog shampooand West Coast caption Warren Ghawks male - enhancement pill , Ross ' agreement with the company isa remunerative one , progress to him an efficacious embodiment of what major - label knock stardom looks like in 2016 .
But this festivity comes at a strange moment in his vocation . As apear - loving meme , he ’s never been live , releasing his own emojis , threatening Donald Trump in his rhyme , and take a crap of import cameo appearances in the prestige TV drama that is DJ Khaled ’s Snapchat . But , as an creative person , following the declining sales of his last three album – 2014’sMastermindandHood Billionaireand 2015’sBlack Market– and his late departure from longtime label Def Jam for Epic , it feels like the boss has lost some of the lemon - pepper zest that made him one of articulatio coxae - hop ’s biggest stars of the last ten .
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I arrive at the issue before the Teflon Don has come forth from a makeshift green room to greet the imperativeness . Extra Butter ’s showroom resembles the Interior Department of a spaceship and what I assume A$ AP Rocky ’s W.C. front like . I ’m handed a glass of rosé when I go in and an attentive waitstaff offer up baskets of chicken wings . I examine the lemon - capsicum pepper plant wing – they ’re tasty and deserving fiending for .
A disk jockey reel a stage set peppered with Rozay , Drake , and Prince . guest mingle and tap away at their phones . Expensive - looking tennis shoe loom on the wall around us . We wait .
Because this is an event to observe the launch of the caller ’s on-line Wingshop , there ’s a dirty money division countersink up . One shirt says " Wingstop is life " and another has little aureate drumstick on it . There are fitted chapeau , Wingstop socks , and flank - shaped airwave fresheners that carry that key signature lemon - white pepper olfactory property . It ’s unusual in the way all marketing that attempts to co - prefer something " coolheaded " is strange .
Then I see it : a gold concatenation necklace with a favourable drumstick on the end . The drumstick face like a smelted baby arm balled up in a clenched fist – or a comely - sized amber shite . Given theloaded racial history of deep-fried chicken , it is , putting it lightly , problematical . I see a guy try on one on , marvel to his protagonist at the ridiculousness of the thing .
here and now subsequently , Rozay salvo into the party , looking trim in a racy shirt and white jean . His beard look spick-and-span and he ’s wearing his signature sunglasses . After a speedy founding from Wingstop CMO Flynn Dekker , Ross glides through the way in the way of life that only celebrities and really confident cats can . He dances to his own hits , contract selfies , and give out hugs .
I come near Ross and yell a question about Wingstop to him over the medicine . " For me , it ’s about being a trendsetter , " says Ross in his overlook baritone . " It ’s so important to me . Me being part of a franchise in this eccentric of role is really new and unlike . It ’s become such a cool thing and I ’m felicitous we did it . "
favourite type of wing?I ask . " Of course it ’s the lemon - peppercorn wing , " he says . " All apartment . I ’m team all flats . It ’s all flats vs. the drum squad . "
These phrase should be intimate to anyone who follows hisvery pro - Wingstop Twitter provender . I do n’t have the pump to tell him that I ’m a member of the metal drum squad , so I change the field of study and need if he watchesGame of Thrones . " Not much , " he says .
I have an objectionable keep up - up dubiousness ready in my nous about the beard onGame of Thrones , but I do n’t want to force it . Rick Ross is here to promote chicken and diffuse the Gospel of Wingstop . He ’s enjoy himself . His sis is in the crowd . He ’s in his constituent , surrounded by food for thought , family , and all the pleasures of a celebrity - brand family relationship .
Later , I circulate back to the merch area , get a plunder traveling bag , along with my very own gold - range of mountains poulet necklace , and head out into the nighttime , the aroma of gamboge pepper still in the air .
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Dan Jacksonis a faculty writer at Thrillist Entertainment and a fan of all of Rick Ross ' ad - libs . He ’s on Twitter:@danielvjackson .
