It's referring to the supply chain of illegal drugs. Heroin comes in from SE asia, flown in to the US. Similar to the hair market before, it's a bad system, with no way to do quality control of the product.

More specifically, Rick Ross (aka Freeway Rick) was a notorious LA drug dealer in the 80s. Now he's selling hair:

http://www.lamag.com/features/freeway-rick-is-dreaming/

http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/06/05/188908281/freew...

Don't forget that Gary Webb broke the story about the CIA running the drugs to Rick Ross and other inner city areas, and ended up committing suicide (or according to some being suicided.)

The British and Dutch started it with the opium wars and now America took a page from their book and does it too. This is the real issue behind the war on drugs. They create a black market and then own that market, makes for tons of money that's unaccountable to congress (eg perfect for black budget ops).

Opium production in Afghanistan was almost nil before we invaded, and now Afghan heroin is getting shipped straight to America and business is booming! Similar things happened in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

I hadn't connected the recent popularity of heroin with the decade-ago colonization of Afghanistan. But of course, that's the time it takes to setup mass cultivation, informal supply lines, domestic distribution networks, and finally, social popularity.

Gosh, this shit really does camouflage over human-imperceptible timescales.

The kind of entities that participate think in longer timescales than most, which is a key advantage for plausible deniability. Strategically effective, I'll give em that.

The Rick Ross attributed to this song is not the same person as Freeway Rick Ross.

That's right, but Rick Ross the rapper derived his name from Freeway Rick Ross: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/freeway-ricky-ross-...

It's not just a coincidence.

Was there actually an issue with the quality of the received hair?

My reading of the linked article was the issue with hair was a question of credit, in that stylists did not have the money, nor the credit to be able to hold inventory, and not that the hair itself was bad.

He seems to have executed well. Instead of Hairstylists maintaining the inventory, Mayvenn maintains the inventory and hair-stylist will only show samples to their clients. Mayvenn basically takes over from delivery to returns etc. It make the hair-saloon much safer because they do not hold expensive inventory which is a big problem.

Because of how fragmented the hair industry is. In this case, Mayvenn is not into piece meal distribution—they are the "Atlantic Records" of hair and are concerned with distribution. And then, because the hair comes from India, they are flying it over the Atlantic Ocean as well.

Those gangsta rap quotes are testimony to how much pisstaking one can avoid as a powerful man.

My rap-speak may be off but I believe this refers to the Recording Industry and thus a reference to Atlantic Records and not drugs as other commenters suggested.

it's both