After a week of silence, Reebok decided to fire rapper Rick Ross from his endorsement deal for writing a song that flippantly describes date rape.
The lyrics of "U.O.E.N.O" that got Ross the axe? "Put Molly all in her champagne. She ain't even know it. I took her home and I enjoy that. She ain't even know it."
Molly is slang for MDMA, which is a pure form of Ecstasy.
Activist group UltraViolet gave Reebok a petition on April 4 with 71,000-plus signatures, asking them to part ways with Ross, but the company stayed silent. Members of the women's rights group later protested outside of Reebok's NY flagship store.
At first Ross got himself in more hot water, giving interviews to radio stations saying that the song wasn't about rape since he didn't actually use the word "rape" in the piece.
"Woman is the most precious gift known to man ... And there was a misunderstanding with a lyric ... a misinterpretation where the term rape was — wasn't used. I would never use the term rape, you know, in my lyrics. And as far as my camp, hip hop don't condone that, the streets don't condone that, nobody condones that."
He then took to Twitter to apologize for the alleged misinterpretation.
After realizing that his partnership with Reebok was at stake, he tweeted an apology to the company as well an hour later — making sure to include UltraViolet so they would stop pressuring Reebok to dump Ross.
But Reebok is finally done with Ross.
A spokesperson said, "Reebok holds our partners to a high standard, and we expect them to live up to the values of our brand. Unfortunately, Rick Ross has failed to do so. While we do not believe that Rick Ross condones sexual assault, we are very disappointed he has yet to display an understanding of the seriousness of this issue or an appropriate level of remorse. At this time, it is in everyone's best interest for Reebok to end its partnership with Mr. Ross."
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