Ras Kass New Ahh Interview (09/08/2010)

[Elano]

AllHipHop.com:  First up, what made you decide to do the Mel Gibson song?

Ras Kass:  We were just in the studio writing some songs for another artist.  An A&R at interscope played it for me and I just bust out laughing.  It wasn’t the ni**er part.  It was the pack part.  He thinks we come out in litters like cats and dogs.  It’s so offensive it’s funny.  He’s crazy.  I have to sample this dude.  I know people thought I’d come with the heavy “I’m gonna f**k you up Mel” beat but let’s be real…I’m never going to see this dude.  So we just made it fun.  It took 30 minutes.  It was strictly for our entertainment but we figured the A.D.I.D.A.S project is coming out so why not put it out.  It went viral for a bit.  Howard Stern spoke on it and TMZ called me.   All the s**t I do and I get some recognition for something silly.  Honestly though, if he hadn’t have said “pack” it would have never happened.  The pack offended me so much I just had to respond [laughs].

AllHipHop.com:   A few years ago you described yourself as a music connoisseur and not just a consumer.  Can you explain that?  As a connoisseur, who are you listening to?

Ras Kass:  Man, it varies.  I’ll be honest…I don’t actively go out and seek music.  There is just so much out there.  Right now there are too many rappers and not enough fans.  Too many producers and not enough fans.  Too many music critics and not enough fans.  Everybody blogs and….it almost defeats the purpose.  I love the internet for what it does do but it is like a double edge sword.  I just have what I call the “mixtape from hell” which has about 700 songs.  It can have De La Soul.  It can have rock records.  Just whatever I’m feeling at the moment.  I’ve been real heavy on Special Ed right now.  The third album.  The one that didn’t sell.  I’m listening to it like “This dude is nasty…how do people not get it?”  I just try to listen to everybody.  Just stuff I think is dope.  I even got a record from The Game on there. You make a dope song and I’ll listen…whether I believe you or not.  I can separate myself from my likes and dislikes as a person.

AllHipHop.com:  On the new album you have a song “Where Did She Go” where you describe not knowing Hip Hop anymore.  Do you really feel that out of touch?

Ras Kass: Sometime.  I’ve quit a couple of times.  I quit for some years.  I was going back to college and I wasn’t going to be a rapper anyway.  People just run with trends and stereotypes.  I’m not going to turn into n***a from the bay when it’s popular, then be from the south when it’s popular, and then be the gangsta when it’s popular.  I’m not playing that game.  It gets n***a’s money…I get that…but it’s not me.

AllHipHop.com:  You were wondering “how do people not get it” in terms of Special Ed but a lot of fans say the same about you.  What is your take on having critically acclaimed albums but that not translating into sales?

Ras Kass:  From Russell Simmons to Dr. Dre to my mom…whatever….people have always said Ras is a star.  I’ve never had the marketing and promotion that my peers have had because, unfortunately, I signed with a company that didn’t know what to do with me.  I picked the wrong company in retrospect but there is no use crying over that.  I don’t equate my music with my record sales.  Sales don’t validate me as a person.  It doesn’t let me know how dope my music is…or how wack it is.  If I sold a million copies of a wack ass record the record is still wack.  It’s not good music.  You know, Hip Hop has gotten corny.  Everything it said it wasn’t going to be is what it became.

AllHipHop.com:  For lack of better words, you haven’t had the best experience with record companies.  With the changes going on in the industry do you see yourself signing with another record company?

Ras Kass:  Oh no.  Not at all.  I can speak on this now because there was literally a settlement and there where terms to that settlement that had me quiet for three years.  I’m done.  I’m kinda cool.  [laughs].  It’s funny because I see all these people out here trying to get a deal like it’s going to save their life and ever since 2002 I have been trying to get fired.  Just let me out the deal.  It got ugly with me and this particular company.  To the point where they are sending cease and desist letters to actively stop me from putting out music.  They were trying to kill me by stopping me from making a living.  So, now I’m out. Done.

AllHipHop.com:   So not having a deal frees you up to do the A.D.I.D.A.S project.  What was your mindset going into this project?

Ras Kass:  Well  A.D.I.D.A.S is the first….you know I did a bid basically for a parole violation.  I was pretty disgusted.  Let me just throw some facts out there.  California has the higher rate of recidivism, which is returning to prison, than the rest of the world.  So of course they create unrealistic situations that can ensure the most amount of people go back.  I went back.  I was disgusted with myself.  I got out.  Now this is the first time since…You know what…this is the first time I’ve gotten to make music without being under duress.  This was something for me.  I had peace of mind on this one.  I wanted to make something I thought was missing in 2010. Not just to make music people wanted me to make.  Not just for names.  I got Jean Grae on the album.  I heard the beat and pictured me and her on the track.  Not for namesake but for the sake of music.  This is just a dope Hip Hop record.  I feel blessed when people just say it’s dope.

AllHipHop.com: You’ve had problems with record labels but you’ve also had your own personal problems with the law.  How much do you believe your career has suffered do to your own doing?

Ras Kass:  They are interrelated.  When I get frustrated I can become self destructive.  Before I had a record deal I was already doing s&#^ that would send me to jail.  My dad’s a retired police officer and he would tell me I was creating a hole for myself.  He was right.  Anytime you remove yourself from freedom…life goes on, things evolve, and you don’t grow.  I’ve removed myself out the real world for about six years of my life.  It’s not cool.  I’m not proud of it.  I don’t make songs that glorify it. Yet, you have all these rappers that have never been glorifying it.  Hip Hop use to hold people accountable.  Now we brown nose because someone sold a record.  I didn’t listen to the music as a kid so I came late to Hip Hop.  But when I heard it I believed it.  Now it’s contrived and corny.  We use to say if it ain’t dope I don’t I don’t care how much it sells.  Then I started seeing my favorite rappers say “How you not gonna say I’m the best?  I sold this many records.”  We’ve let it get out of hand.

AllHipHop.com: You mentioned earlier about people wanting you to be a certain way.  I think the song that epitomizes that is “Nature of the Threat”.  A lot of fans want to hear a song like that again.  What do you say to that?

Ras Kass:  This is what I say now.  Jay-Z said it.  Want my old s**tbuy my old album.  And n***as didn’t buy that  [laughs].  You talked all that s&$* like you wanted it and you didn’t even buy it.

AllHipHop.com:  Yeah, your first album, Soul On Ice, is going for $119, new, on Amazon.

Ras Kass:  Yeah, I’m one of the first artists out of print from that company.  There are artists that sold more than me and artists that sold less than me but they just pulled it out of print.  Rasassination [Ras Kass’ second album]– they pulled it out of print.  I’m not trying to say anything…I’m just stating facts.  Take what you want from those facts.  So to those people that want another “Nature of the Threat” you should have supported it.  Furthermore, it was just a thesis paper.  The question is “Should we consider white people a threat because of the nature of racism?”  I’m different now.  Now I might want to ask a different question.  Just trying to recreate that wouldn’t be genuine and it would sound contrived.  I’ve put out other lyrical records but since I didn’t have an ad in a magazine or on a website you didn’t listen.  I wrote “Behind the Music” which is one of the most in-depth songs I ever heard about the music industry coming from a rapper.  I’ve done my part and if you want me to keep doing the same thing then you’re not really my fan.  You’re not my supporter.  You just want me to be a monkey and do the same thing over and over again.  I keep my music honest.  You just want the same thing and that’s what I mean when I talk about the corniness of Hip Hop.  I get the messages on Twitter and facebook all time telling me what I should do.  If fans had their way there would be no Outkast.  They’d still be doing Southernplayalisticcaddilacfunkymuzik.  Lil Wayne would never be Weezy.  He’d still be one of the Hot Boys.  Jay-Z would still be Jigga.  Common would never wear a coofie.  But you still want me to be 17 year old Ras Kass.

AllHipHop.com: So why do you think fans try to box you in?

Ras Kass:  It’s weird.  People are multi-dimensional but they want you to be one dimensional.  You would think they would embrace the person that is trying to be honest.  They want you to just be one way.  For instance, I love Young Jeezy’s music.  This dude makes songs that make me want to go sell crack.  Like put on an Atlanta Braves hat and go out to the Trap.  I’m not going to sell crack but I still love the music.  People will get mad because I like Young Jeezy.  I can’t like Young Jeezy?  When I’m on my n***a s**t I want to hear Jeezy.  When I’m in the club and girls are dancing I want to hear “I’m Bringing Sexy Back”.  When I’m chilling I want to hear “Electric Relaxation”.

AllHipHop.com: Back to A.D.I.D.A.S.  We heard them on the album.  Are we going to get a HRSMN album with you, Canibus, Killa Priest, and Kurrupt?

Ras Kass:  We just had a meeting with a potential company.  There will definitely be an album.  We’re going to start hopping in the studio.  I think we have an ill concept.  It’s not just going be us hopping on beats.  There’s going to be a good concept….like it’s a movie.

AllHipHop.com:   Your twin sons are on the album.  Both of them grow up and want to be rappers.  What do you tell them?

Ras Kass:  Don’t do it! [laughs].  I want some lawyers, doctors, and crooked cops.  I want one to be a banker so we can wash money and the other to be a crooked cop [laughs].  Nah, I support them in whatever.  Their uncle is Xzibit.  They are kind of acclimated to it.  I mean no one else in my family was into music.  My sister is in law school. She wants to be an entertainment attorney just because she saw what happened with her brother.  At least if they decide to go into it we can be prepared.

AllHipHop.com: You’ve talked about growing and being a multidimensional artist.  Given your time in the industry if you could go back in time and tell a younger version of yourself one thing what would it be?

Ras Kass:  I wrote a song about it and it was on my mixtape, The Quarterly.  I would tell myself you can’t trust everybody.  Money brings the monkey out of everyone.  People act up.  Oh, and honestly I don’t think I could write “Nature of the Threat” today because there have been incredible white people who have helped me and dudes I’ve grown up with that straight took the skin off me.  Actually, I wouldn’t tell the young me anything.  He needs to go through the good, the bad, and the ugly.  If he knew everything then I wouldn’t be the person I am today.

[Episcop Cruel Cvrle]

one of the best spitters ever

[BOX5 the best poster on this site yell]

I even got a record from The Game on there. You make a dope song and I’ll listen…whether I believe you or not.  I can separate myself from my likes and dislikes as a person.

^^^^^110% networth yell

[KrazySumwhat]

 Must admit of one of those fans that didnt suppourt his old albums^^; But my freinds had his stuff. I liked "eat or die"  and "Rasassination". purchased them both(slept on "revenge of the spit")
 I'll definately check for his new stuff and am looking foward to a horsemen album.
 I wonder why Xzibit never puts RasKass on?

[T-o-m]

Must admit of one of those fans that didnt suppourt his old albums^^; But my freinds had his stuff. I liked "eat or die"  and "Rasassination". purchased them both(slept on "revenge of the spit")
 I'll definately check for his new stuff and am looking foward to a horsemen album.
 I wonder why Xzibit never puts RasKass on?

He puts him on, not too often tho. Last time it was on skit before Back To The Way It Was. Wasn't Ras in jail anyways?

As for the interview, I gotta admit Ras Kass seems to be more mature than other rappers, when u read his answers, its all logic. Dope read, thanks.