HKR 08-07-2013: Ras Kass is one of the dopest lyricist to ever bless the mic and sadly he’s way underrated and not fully appreciated. His first two albums ‘Soul on Ice’ and ‘Rasassination‘ are considered underground classics. Later Ras went on to make a name for himself as being part of two super groups, one being the 4 Hrsemen featuring him, Kurupt, Killah Priest and Canibus. The other was the Golden State Warriors featuring him, Xzibit and Saafir.. Both projects looked promising but didn’t really take off the ground.
While Ras was generating major buzz as being a rhyme spitter not to test, he was sadly generating a lot of noise around record label politics. In fact the drama around his 3rd album Van Gogh seemed to overshadow his accomplishments. For the most part Ras was at war with his record label which was Capitol Records who basically refused to release the album, even as it was generating buzz because it was leaked and folks got hold of a few singles.
After Ras revamped the album and came up with a new joint called Goldyn Chlyd he got into with the label over what single to release. If there was any artist to be held back because of label politics it’s Ras Kass.
Adding insult to injury while Ras was battling his label, he got hit up on a drunk driving charge and had to spend 19 months in jail.
He finally got everything together and has been back on the scene with a vengeance. His new album Barmageddon is a banger.. He also rocks with a full band…
He swung by our studios the other day and chopped it up with Anita about a host of issues ranging from his career choices, to gender roles to Trayvon Martin, the George Zimmerman verdict and race, to the beef between Jay Z and Harry Belafonte. Ras noted that he once lived with Jay so his take on the supposed beef was interesting as he was able to offer some additional insight.
Ras also talked about his classic and most controversial record Nature of the Threat …
He’ll be in the Bay Area this Friday with Money B and a host of others at Yoshis in SF..
Click the link below to Listen
Watch out now -15
Rass Kass is one of the best lyricist to come from the west coast but he never blew up. Maybe his baby mama Teedra Moses can get him a deal with Maybach and Rick Ross can help give him some shine.
Soul On Ice is the only Ras Kass album IMO. 5 stars,
ok #18
Ras is underrated
I really enjoyed this interview with Rasy. It was refreshing to her a more mature Ras Kass speak on his philosophy on life, the state of affairs, and on all things Hip Hop; in particular his views now on music he made many years ago. Ras Kass proves to be one of the greatest minds in Hip Hop on any era or region.