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Tyga Defends Rick Ross "U.O.E.N.O." Lyrics

The Young Money rapper says Ross was exercising "freedom of speech."

Rick Ross is still the subject of boycotts, protests and online criticism thanks to the controversy over lyrics that seem to condone sexual assault, but he has at least one person left in his corner: Tyga.

In a recent online interview, the Young Money rapper chimed in about the firestorm brewing around “U.O.E.N.O.” by Atlanta rapper Rocko, which features Rick Ross rapping, "Put molly all in her champagne, she ain't even know it / I took her home and enjoyed that, she ain't even know it." Tyga defended Rick Ross, saying that Ross was exercising “freedom of speech” on the song.

"What he said, that’s just freedom of speech," said Tyga. "People act like they don’t condone it. Like you can’t say what you feel. You know what I’m saying? It’s just stupid."
Tyga insisted the criticism was overblown, pointing out that the song in question wasn’t Rick Ross’ own track, and that it was from a mixtape, not an official release. "It wasn’t even his record. For them to do all that off of a mixtape song that wasn’t even his … those groups, they just wanna [petition]."

Tyga noted that he’s dealing with a somewhat similar controversy: The rapper’s upcoming performance at Harvard University is being boycotted by a student group that’s accusing him of promoting sexism and rape.

"I wanted to speak on that because this weekend I’m performing at Harvard, which is one of the most prestigious universities in the world," Tyga said. "There’s a group on campus that are protesting to not have me perform because of my lyrics. And they said I promote sexism and rape culture… At the end of the day people have the right to have opinions. I have the right to have an opinion. And I have the right to say what I want on my music cause it’s my music. If you don’t like it, don’t click on it, don’t download it. I think it’s just getting out of hand with the whole, like, people looking into it too much."

Tyga may be defending his fellow rapper, but he isn’t following his lead: Ross apologized for the lyrics in question last week via Twitter.

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