Teflon Don

The cover of Teflon Don is a portrait of Rick Ross, the Miami rapper presented as the boss his title describes. It was his fourth album, released through his own Maybach Music Group with Slip-n-Slide and Def Jam, and the sleeve continues the image he had been building since his debut: a heavyset, bearded figure who carried himself like the head of a crime family.

The title comes from the nickname the New York press gave John Gotti, the Gambino boss whose criminal charges seemed never to stick. Ross borrowed the phrase at a pointed moment. In 2008 it had been revealed that he once worked as a corrections officer, a story that many expected to end his career. It did not, and the Teflon label became his reply: nothing landed on him either. The portrait plays the part straight. There is no wink in it, which is how Ross's persona worked: a fantasy of power performed with total seriousness. uDiscover Music later described the album as the moment Ross "lived up to his mafia moniker."

Teflon Don, with "B.M.F. (Blowin' Money Fast)" and "Aston Martin Music", became one of the most acclaimed records of his career, and the cover's luxury-boss imagery set the tone for the Maybach Music era that followed. It was released on 20 July 2010.