On June 24, 2013, i.e. yesterday, the outsize rapper Rick Ross (twitter handle: “Mastermind”) tweeted two pieces of exciting news at once: firstly, that he had landed “in the beautiful country of Africa,” (he has since deleted it) and, secondly, that the anticipated release of his label mate Wale’s album “The Gifted” was getting a lot of buzz. At least two things didn’t make sense.  One, how has Ross (no relation to the AIAC blogger of that same last name) not figured this thing out for himself yet? We know he’s already been to at least three African countries – South Africa, Gabon and Nigeria. And, second, why didn’t Wale, whose parents are Nigerian immigrants to the US and who is probably (?) traveling with Ross, intervene to prevent the man with the dollar signs in his name from thrusting his foot so forcefully into his mouth?

Shocker, Twitter did not waste time in ridiculing Mr Ross. Some of it was quite brutal.  Here’s a sample:

The writer, Teju Cole, tagged us: “@AfricasaCountry Ross is a large man. He can’t just land in one of your puny countries, there’s bound to be spillover.” The comedian, Trevor Noah, opined: “As big as he is, Rick Ross should know the difference between a continent & country.” The music critic Siddhartha Mitter went in: “@tejucole @AfricasaCountry If he landed in Lake Victoria, how many countries would flood?”  And @ItsBuddhaBlaze tweeted: “Someone take a wild guess at which African country Rick Ross has just landed in? Don’t say Jamaica please.”

The only saving grace for Rick is that his wasn’t even the barmiest “landing in Africa” tweet by an American musician. He’s going to have to try much harder if he’s going to take that title off Lady Gaga (though we wondered if she had her tongue firmly in her cheek):

I AM IN AFRICA WE HAVE NOT LANDED YET BUT I THINK I SAW A GIRAFFE ALTHOUGH IM PRETTY SURE IM SEEING THINGS BECAUSE IM SO EXCITED!!!! ahh!!!