Wall Street analyst spins hip-hop infused notes

Rick Ross is a 50-year-old American rap icon who broke out in 2006 with the hit song "Hustlin'."

• Rich Ross is a 55-year-old analyst with Evercore ISI based in Westport, Conn., who broke out earlier this week with a research note titled "CapEx Gon' Give IT to Ya," a riff on the 2002 hit song by hip-hop icon DMX.

Why it matters: Ross is one of a few Wall Street analysts who is spinning a more positive take on the software selloff.

• But as far as we know, he's the only one to zhuzh his work up with copious pop culture references from the past two decades.

Zoom in: One of his charts on mortgage rates falling is titled: "30 Yr Mortgage: Shawty Get LOW LOW LOW" (a riff on Flo Rida's "Low").

• A section on the importance of software references both the hit Apple TV show "Ted Lasso" — "Software is life" — and lyrics from OutKast, "Forever ever" from "Ms. Jackson," off the group's 2000 album "Stankonia."

By the numbers: Across 20 pages of technical analysis, we counted at least five hip-hop references, one to Linkin Park and one to the Grateful Dead.

• "I'm kind of a deadhead underneath the surface," Ross tells Axios. The word play is "sort of a calling card."

• The titles of his notes in January and December feature riffs on a 1980s Quincy Jones hit, a Nelly reference and one for New Kids on the Block.

Between the lines: Ross says he did not use AI for help on this latest report. "I've been trying to build AI insulation" into the job, he says, and the way to do that is by being more creative.

• "You know, I'm an English major in a finance profession."
• "I take my job very, very seriously," he says. "I don't take myself as seriously. I think it's how you survive in this business."

The bottom line: Everyday he's hustlin'.