Ross first revealed the title of his fifth album on January 4, 2011 on the Breakfast Club, along with the release of the song "Made Men" featuring Drake produced by 2 Tall Beats. A music video for the song was later released on April 11, 2011. Made Men will not make the album, as Ross confirmed it just to be on his Ashes to Ashes mixtape. The album was highly promoted by the official Twitter account of Maybach Music Group, along with DJ Khaled. Drake spoke on the album during an interview with MTV saying "That God Forgives I Don't; the only way I can describe it, it's like Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle, The Notorious B.I.G.'s Ready to Die, or Clipse's Lord Willin' or any of the albums that I collected and held on to as a kid — whether it was cassette or CD." DJ Khaled also sang Rozay's praises when MTV News interviewed him back in July. "God Forgives, I Don't is a classic-in-the-making. Let me tell you something right now: This album is so crazy from the beginning of what I've been in the studio hearing already," he said. "I can't give you too much because I'm going to let him do that, because that's his project, but I could tell you right now it's classic and he is talking that talk." Rick Ross revealed that he would like to collaborate with Lionel Richie on the album. In an interview with hip-hop magazine XXL, Bun B confirmed that he would appear on God Forgives, I Don't, but did not make the final cut of the album. Rick Ross spoke about the album during an interview with MTV at the October 11th BET Hip Hop Awards saying that "Me making my album is just a real tedious process that I go through and the response from the people that I did play a few records for, the feedback is incredible" and he also spoke on his upcoming collaboration with Mary J. Blige. "That's the Queen. I can just tell you about the experience," he said. "We actually worked in Michael Jackson's L.A. studio and we made some magic." Mary J. Blige also spoke of the experience with XXL in September, clarifying that the two actually recorded in the last studio the King of Pop ever recorded in. "It's a private studio that one of our friends, he was really close to Michael Jackson, he let us use it," Mary said. "It's actually Marvin Gaye's studio. It has murals of Michael Jackson all over the walls and Marvin Gaye. That was the last place Michael actually worked at before he passed. It's such a good vibe." The first video log of the making of God Forgives, I Don't was released, and featured The Alchemist, in a studio session released by Rick Ross.
The Title
The Title: God Forgives, I Don't
"I knew approaching this album, I wanted to approach titling it a lot different from previous albums. I wanted it to be strong and impactful. The first half is God Forgives: It's a lot of us need forgiveness. I Don't represented the street aspect of life. I feel we have both sides that we deal with in life. I gave 'em one of those feelings that it was a motion picture, a masterpiece, five-star."
The Album Cover
"We actually used a church to shoot some photos in. I remember sitting in the church just waiting for the photographer, and I remember sitting in there praying, just being thankful. I knew I wanted to have 10 Jesus pieces on. Of course, one Jesus piece was always fly, but I just wanted 10. I just wanted to go to that next level."
The Recording Process
"I keep my circle extremely small when it comes to me recording my music. I put the music together before I even put the words to the music, because I feel it's easier for me to write the words and make it fit the music versus me finding music that can fit my words."
The Cinematic Influence
"This may be 'Inglourious Basterds,' man. We gonna peel your scalp back on this one. Quentin Tarantino, that's one of the vibes I was in when I titled the album. I wanted to approach it like a film."
The Five Word Description
"Classic, untouchable, boss, success, revenge. If you doubted us being here three years ago, five years ago, you don't understand hip-hop, you don't understand the power of rap music."
time