DAVIE, Fla. – Rapper Rick Ross, whose real name is William Roberts, is known on Instagram as "Rich For Ever." As his fans feared his life was at risk, a post was published on his account. It was promoting his Sunday episode of "Uncensored" on TV One. The 42-year-old rapper's fans responded with a wave of get well wishes.
Some celebrities --- including Gucci Mane, LL Cool J and Missy Elliott --- took to Twitter to send him messages of support Friday, after learning that authorities responded to his South Florida home early Thursday morning.
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"Prayers up for my guy," Rapper Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Cordozar Broadus, wrote on Twitter. "Hope you pull thru my brotha."
The rapper's team had not made an announcement on social media early Saturday morning, but his colleague and friend Martrel Reeves, better known by his stage name Fat Trel, claimed on Instagram Friday that he had talked to him over the phone.
"He in da hospital but he is not on life support," the rapper, who signed to Rick Ross' label Mayback Music Group and Atlantic Records, wrote. "He good."
"Rick Ross is on life support and is in desperate need of our thoughts and prayers," TV One's Jessica Lane reported.
Lane didn't attribute this to his family or a spokesperson for the rapper. She referenced TMZ's reports and shared a preview video of the Sunday show that Rick Ross' confirmed Instagram account was promoting.
In the video, the rapper's mother, Tommie Roberts, said she and the rapper's wife, Tawanda Roberts, were given misinformation about his health when he suffered two seizures about six years ago. She said they had thought he had required CPR, but later she learned that he didn't.
"It was devastating," Tommie Roberts said in the video.
With conflicting reports about his condition, it was déjà vu for his family. TMZ reported sources connected to Ross said he was "hooked up to a machine that's taking over the function of his heart and lungs." TMZ later reported Ross' family denied he was in the hospital.
The Miami Carol City Senior High School graduate lives in Davie, a town about a 40-minute drive away from where he grew up in Miami Gardens. The closest hospital is Broward Health Weston, but a hospital employee said he wasn't registered there as a patient.
A call for service report shows the Davie Police Department responded about 3:40 a.m., Thursday, to his home near Tree Tops Park. They were responding to a combative patient with seizures, but authorities didn't confirm if a fire rescue crew took him to the hospital.
"They were trying to wake him up and he was slobbing out the mouth ... He is just nodding his head now and sat up still," the service report says.