Even if you're not a rap fan, you know this one: "Everyday I'm hustlin'."
That line, repeated 36 times in the song, became a catch phrase thanks in part to the comedian Katt Williams, who made it the centerpiece of his comedy routine and released a movie in 2007 called Katt Williams: American Hustle.
On his comedy tour, he would come on stage to the song and then talk about it: "Anyone who hustles, that's our national anthem right there. Even if your job don't require no hustlin'. Even if you're a librarian - just play it at the library and see how it feels. If you went to heaven and they were playing that song, you'd know it would be a party in heaven. If you went to the grocery store and they're playing that song, you'd buy everything in that b---h."
According to Ross, anyone can be a hustler. It just means working hard, doing the grind to get where you need to be.
The song started when Rick Ross got a beat from the production team The Runners, who like Ross were based in Florida and looking for their big break. Ross got the beat on a CD and played it in his car on the way to a show by the rapper Trina, who often let him take the stage. Ross wrote the first verse on the way to the show, and when he got to rap at the concert, he had the DJ play the CD and performed what he'd written.
"I remember the look of this one dude in the crowd," he said in a
video interview. "It was a look I'd never got for any music I'd ever written."
A few days later he finished the song.
As for The Runners, they produced tracks for Fabolous ("My Time"), Ludacris ("Slap"), Jeezy ("Go Getta") and other rappers before breaking through to the pop world with Rihanna's "
Cheers (Drink To That)" in 2010.
Ross was signed to a Miami-based label called Slip-n-Slide Records, which released "Hustlin'" in December 2005. The song blew up in Miami and garnered lots of attention from major labels, who pursued Ross. He ended up signing with Def Jam, which at the time was run by Jay-Z, who made a personal appeal. The hustle paid off with a $1 million signing bonus.
Def Jam re-released the song in March 2006 with a big promotional push that helped establish Ross as one of the big dogs in the industry. His debut album on the label, Port Of Miami, was released a few months later.
The lyrics play up Rick Ross' drug-dealing "boss" persona along with some brags about his wealth and prowess with the ladies. Ross was born William Roberts and took his stage name after a notorious drug kingpin named "Freeway" Ricky Ross, and he seems to be the basis for many of the lyrics the rapper Rick Ross spits about running a drug empire. The rapper Ross was never a drug boss, and in fact, he was a correctional officer in the '90s. In 2014 "Freeway" Ricky Ross sued him for misappropriating his name and identity, but lost the case. In his memoir, Ross the rapper wrote: "I'm a storyteller. I'm not here to glorify anything but success."
Ross' label boss Jay-Z and fellow Def Jam rapper Jeezy (known at the time as Young Jeezy), jumped on a popular remix of "Hustlin'" that was included on the Port Of Miami album.
The music video, set in Ross' stomping grounds of Miami, was directed by Gil Green and opens with this intro:
"Miami, the playboy's paradise. Pretty girls, fast cars... that's just a facade. The bridge separates South Beach from my Miami, the real Miami. This is where we hustle."
The Miami you see in movies and on Instagram is usually the South Beach area, which is very resort-like. But across the MacArthur Causeway is the urban area where the tourist usually don't go.
Many musical tastemakers of Miami show up in the video, including DJ Khaled and Pitbull, whose careers would soon blow up. Trick Daddy and Trina also appear.
"Hustlin'" shows up in these movies:
Trolls Band Together (2023)
The Redeem Team (2022)
Horrible Bosses 2 (2014)
We're The Millers (2013)
It's also in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.
In 2008 Ross and his Miami mates DJ Khaled, Akon, Plies, Jeezy, Ace Hood, Trick Daddy and Lil' Boosie teamed up on another song that celebrates the hustle: "Out Here Grindin'." That one was also produced by The Runners.
This song made the Super Bowl in 2025 in a
commercial for Michelob ULTRA beer where Willem Dafoe and Catherine O'Hara hustle unsuspecting pickleball players out of their suds.
In 2011 the electro-pop duo LMFAO transformed "Everyday I'm hustlin'" into "Everyday I'm shufflin'" for their global smash "
Party Rock Anthem." Ross took them to court but lost the case;
TMZ reported it was because Ross had such shoddy copyright filings that the judge "laughed him out of court."
