Ras Kass: "Why I Wrote How To Kill God"

[Sccit]

Why I Wrote
“How to Kill God”


By John Richard Austin IV (pka Ras Kass)

First of all, I need to explain the inception of my song “How to Kill God.” Around 1999, I had an epiphany. After being just two albums into my major label record deal, I had encountered an endless amount of politics, treachery, envy and overall shadiness. I knew that by my last contractual album — the fifth — I wanted to go out with a bang, create my opus, and really tell people what I thought. I figured I’d be blackballed out of the industry for it, but by then I’d be financially solvent. Maybe not Russell Simmons rich, but wealthy enough to retire. In 2000, I called a fellow emcee and told him my fifth and final album’s title, How to Kill God. He was slightly offended at my use of rhetoric.

They say, “If you want to make God laugh, make a plan” because by 2003 I had two major releases shelved, was serving 19 months in Corcoran II prison and was in year two of a nine year litigation with my record label. I wasn’t getting a third album, let alone making it to a fifth! Still, during that incarceration I wrote “How To Kill God,” put it in a notebook along with fifty other songs (including “48 Laws” and “Francine” — which also appear on my new album Blasphemy) and there it remained for the next ten years, distilling like Beluga Gold Line barley. Lyrically top shelf.


Ras Kass & Apollo Brown’s Blasphemy LP
When Apollo Brown reached out to me and we began recording this project, we didn’t have a concept for the album. It wasn’t until about the third song was done that his production pushed me innately. I realized where I was at naturally, spiritually and that’s when I drunkenly called Apollo and told him the concept for this album and its title track.

The original album title of this album was How to Kill God, but pressure from digital/physical distributors and buyers forced the last minute name change to Blasphemy. This showed me the hypocrisy and blasphemous nature of so-called free speech in America. I always joke that if we would have called it How to Kill Allah, or How to Kill a nikka there would have been little or no resistance. But when you appear to attack the Judeo-Christian (white) ideal of God, then its offensive. Blasphemy indeed.

Blasphemy became the LP’s title, but “How To Kill God” is still the first song, so we really found the name change moronic. Both titles play on the same metaphor; that they are the very opposite of what people would initially believe them to be. Blasphemy’s artwork denotes the American flag; ‘Land of the free, home of the brave,’ with Washington’s mouth duct taped because in reality this is the “land of the thieves,” stolen from slaughtered natives, and was “home of the slaves.” America is the country who refused to abolish the barbaric practice of slavery for another 30 years later than Europe; and even that took a civil war.

So “How to Kill God” essentially explains its premise in the first hook. The message is: no matter whose organized religion we join, when we claim our “God” tells us that we should forcibly convert, steal property and in every above mentioned example demean, miseducate, murder, rape and torture other human beings, those are forms of killing God. Are we not all of us and all things a form of God’s creation? So any act against divine creation is therefore a sin against God’s nature; pollution, animal cruelty, child abuse, income inequality, etc.


We kill God through ignorance which leads to hatred. Especially, through rationalized ignorance, which I believe is original sin. Verse one of the song extensively deals with major inconsistencies within Judeo-Christian theology. Because of the history and core root of those religions, it still denotes the Egyptian King of the Gods, Amen-Ra (Amun-Ray), so I ask why would any logical person who worships a monotheistic God repeat the name of a polytheist God at the end of their prayer by saying “Amen?” Didn’t those two gods fight when Moses’ brother Aaron turned his rod into a snake in Exodus 7:8–13? When Ashkenazi Jews create an anti-narrative towards Egyptians (Muslims), while Arabs create a counter-narrative towards Jews, it is ironic as they all share a similar African heritage.

And in that line of creating your own narrative to pursue your own self interest, Mormons took Manifest Destiny—that is, the held belief that American settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent — to the point where they teach a form of white supremacy. They say that the original Native Americans were white men, that God punished the natives by turning them red, and that Blacks are cursed, descendants of the devil. The Mormon Church now admits that they stole more land out west because “Jesus” told Joe Smith he could have about forty wives. This is exactly the Blasphemy that I speak of.

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image /
But worship a white man on the cross, put your faith in it? /
I’m not anti-Christ / Not anti-Islamic, anti-Semite, never…” ►
The second and third verses deal with every Judeo-Christian denominations’ inability to follow even the first two tenets of their belief system. It boggles my brain to see people profess to follow a God that they won’t even accept the first rule from: no idolatry.

No Star of David. No Crescent Moon. No cross. No Jesus on a cross. No Mary with baby Jesus. No Nativity scenes. No fish. And especially no chocolate egg-shytting rabbit.

Exodus 20: 4–6 explicitly says, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” That’s kind of what the whole Moses, Israel, Golden Calf thing was about. Ironically, the Gold Calf is still on Wall Street, exemplifying the idolatry of America. We worship greed. We worship money. The same money that says, “In God We Trust.” Blasphemy.

Finally, I intertwined the fact that scientifically, biologically and even Biblically, Africans are the forefathers of the human race. Case in point, Lucy, the 3.2 million year old mitochondrial Eve who has the matrilineal DNA to create EVERY current living anatomically modern human. She was found in the Afar triangle of Ethiopia in 1974 by Donald Johanson, an American anthropologist and paleoanthropologist.

I expound on the factual ethnicity of the original Hebrews and Egyptians mainly because when any group of people are misled as to what their cultural role in history is, then they can be taught to devalue themselves and are more easily manipulated into self destruction. In essence, leaving him/her deaf, dumb, and blind. I point this out because American and European society worldwide purposely miseducates Black people. Why? Psalms 82:6, “I have said, ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most high.” That was originally written by Black men to Black men because we are the original men made in the image and likeness of the creator that they worship. I feel that they resent us for that. This why they kill God.

Rest in Peace to Eric Garner, John Crawford, Exell Ford, Dante Parker, Michael Brown, Manuel Diaz…

[doggfather]

wow, interesting to read.

[TraceOneInfinite]

Holy Shit man.. this is some next level shit

[ebano bianco]

Some of that conversation reminds me of a conversation i had with a guy in sydney.
i was sittin at gloria jeans ( a coffee shop ) and this guy comes up and asks if he can sit at my table. i was like thats okay and went back to reading my book on islamic philosphy. he points to me book and says do you know what they do to women, and although i understood the point he was trying to make i told him that the book didnt go into to much detail. then he says to me do you know that man originates in africa ( he was african ) i was like yeah i know that but what i wanna know is, how did we fade. he didnt answer me but we just sat there talkin bout thins and smoking. there isnt enough general and tolerant discussion about the things youve talked about in your post. everyone wanna be the supremist, everyone wanna dictate to others about how they should live, gain from another mans oppression, its been happening e ver since that serpent baited eve. every culture has a story of creation so i know there is a creator, we just base our beliefs according to culture, environment, education. i prefer the title blasphemy to how to kill god as i believe even though you might of been sensored, maybe you dont really wanna deal with the potential backlash of putting somethings so arrogant like how to kill god out there. i actually thought once, if i get to heaven im puttin a bullet in gods head, how dare he let people just suffer the way it is on earth, why doesnt he intervene, but then i think, its about that free will, i dont beleive god is responsible for the actions of man and in retrospect i do believe god does intervene, maybe not on the mass scale you would have him do, but regardless of religion race colour or creed there are many that will testify to gods blessings and mercy.

[Free Suge Knight, Gucci Mane, & BShmurda Welcome Home Tray D]

Who cares?  Put it in a Rap and keep it in a Rap.  He's not changing any minds or pushing forward the conversation


Wamp wamp

[Sccit]

Holy Shit man.. this is some next level shit

in essence, what he's saying is the exact opposite of what you've been preaching in regards to the recent police shootings

[TraceOneInfinite]

Holy Shit man.. this is some next level shit

in essence, what he's saying is the exact opposite of what you've been preaching in regards to the recent police shootings

yeah, I actually don't really agree with him politically or philosophically... but sophistry often makes for great music because music appeals to your emotions more than it does logic, fact, and principal.

...and I want to take this time out to give props to all of the police officers who risk their lives out on the roadways.  That's why the American roadways are some of the best and safest in the whole world because the police officers of America are there to keep them safe.  This is something that is often not mentioned and I know this is a little off-topic but if you have ever been out on the road in many foreign countries you really learn to appreciate the job the officers in America do in curbing speeding and other reckless driving.

[Sccit]

Holy Shit man.. this is some next level shit

in essence, what he's saying is the exact opposite of what you've been preaching in regards to the recent police shootings

yeah, I actually don't really agree with him politically or philosophically... but sophistry often makes for great music because music appeals to your emotions more than it does logic, fact, and principal.

...and I want to take this time out to give props to all of the police officers who risk their lives out on the roadways.  That's why the American roadways are some of the best and safest in the whole world because the police officers of America are there to keep them safe.  This is something that is often not mentioned and I know this is a little off-topic but if you have ever been out on the road in many foreign countries you really learn to appreciate the job the officers in America do in curbing speeding and other reckless driving.

yea, and also fuck the police who go overboard and let their man-given powers go to their faggot ass heads...like the bitchass lesbian pig who towed my whip back when you came out here to visit LA, all because my registration came late in the mail. bitch legally had the ability to let me go wit a ticket, but decided to tow my shit and fuck up that entire weekend. yaknow.

[TraceOneInfinite]

yea, and also fuck the police who go overboard and let their man-given powers go to their faggot ass heads...like the bitchass lesbian pig who towed my whip back when you came out here to visit LA, all because my registration came late in the mail. bitch legally had the ability to let me go wit a ticket, but decided to tow my shit and fuck up that entire weekend. yaknow.

I know it sucks, especially at the time, but all these rules and regulations help keep America in good working order.  If you were out here in SouthEast Asia they definitely would've let you slide on that shit, maybe for even a couple bucks or a pack of cigs...but then it gets to a point where nothing is official and everybody starts trying to slide on everything and things can get pretty backwards and that ain't very cool either


...just saying...

[Sccit]

yea, and also fuck the police who go overboard and let their man-given powers go to their faggot ass heads...like the bitchass lesbian pig who towed my whip back when you came out here to visit LA, all because my registration came late in the mail. bitch legally had the ability to let me go wit a ticket, but decided to tow my shit and fuck up that entire weekend. yaknow.

I know it sucks, especially at the time, but all these rules and regulations help keep America in good working order.  If you were out here in SouthEast Asia they definitely would've let you slide on that shit, maybe for even a couple bucks or a pack of cigs...but then it gets to a point where nothing is official and everybody starts trying to slide on everything and things can get pretty backwards and that ain't very cool either


...just saying...

like i said, the law wasnt that my car needed to be towed. shit was her call, had me towed on her own lesbian-frustrated-cuz-she-dont-get-dick discretion. pig mentality.

[TraceOneInfinite]

yea, and also fuck the police who go overboard and let their man-given powers go to their faggot ass heads...like the bitchass lesbian pig who towed my whip back when you came out here to visit LA, all because my registration came late in the mail. bitch legally had the ability to let me go wit a ticket, but decided to tow my shit and fuck up that entire weekend. yaknow.

I know it sucks, especially at the time, but all these rules and regulations help keep America in good working order.  If you were out here in SouthEast Asia they definitely would've let you slide on that shit, maybe for even a couple bucks or a pack of cigs...but then it gets to a point where nothing is official and everybody starts trying to slide on everything and things can get pretty backwards and that ain't very cool either


...just saying...

like i said, the law wasnt that my car needed to be towed. shit was her call, had me towed on her own lesbian-frustrated-cuz-she-dont-get-dick discretion. pig mentality.

your registration was late, no excuse... but in a 3rd world country late is on time and any excuse is valid

[Free Suge Knight, Gucci Mane, & BShmurda Welcome Home Tray D]

It's easy to throw stones at the "intangible" Father upstairs and his Son but I betchu he won't call out the Devil by the names he seeks to destroy.




Why ain't he givin out addresses?  Where's his marches and protests?  Why do I have to abandon God to kill the Devil?  Why hasn't he paid some Goons to murder the same people he has issues with on some Boss shit?  Why slander Religion when you need God to get ahead?  Why twist up "knowledge" just to fit your own Feelings & Opinions on the world as we see it thru tha naked eye?


His interview with Sway and his recent war against God is really turning me off.  Atleast when Maher does it we know he's trolling on some reverse psychology shit.  He's just doing it just for attention.  It's ridiculous

[TraceOneInfinite]

It's easy to throw stones at the "intangible" Father upstairs and his Son but I betchu he won't call out the Devil by the names he seeks to destroy.




Why ain't he givin out addresses?  Where's his marches and protests?  Why do I have to abandon God to kill the Devil?  Why hasn't he paid some Goons to murder the same people he has issues with on some Boss shit?  Why slander Religion when you need God to get ahead?  Why twist up "knowledge" just to fit your own Feelings & Opinions on the world as we see it thru tha naked eye?


His interview with Sway and his recent war against God is really turning me off.  Atleast when Maher does it we know he's trolling on some reverse psychology shit.  He's just doing it just for attention.  It's ridiculous

that's an interesting take...

...fucc the interviews though, bottom line is whether or not it comes out dope

[abusive]

Here's a respiznonse:

Damn Ras is still drinking? smh
Let me get at this real quick. I was busy before..............but now I got time cuz! I'll write this from the perspective of Ras reading this himself.

The original album title of this album was How to Kill God, but pressure from digital/physical distributors and buyers forced the last minute name change to Blasphemy. This showed me the hypocrisy and blasphemous nature of so-called free speech in America. I always joke that if we would have called it How to Kill Allah, or How to Kill a nikka there would have been little or no resistance. But when you appear to attack the Judeo-Christian (white) ideal of God, then its offensive. Blasphemy indeed.

Talk about hypocrisy. You write something, sit on it for over a decade and then bow down to corporations and change it, then have the nerve to whine and play the race card. Like someone made you do it. You sure money aint yo god? [sarcasm]Yeah Ras go ahead and title your next album 'How to Kill Allah' absolutely nothing will happen. The religion of peace and it's followers are known worldwide for turning a blind eye to that type of stuff. :troll:[/sarcasm]

Blasphemy’s artwork denotes the American flag; ‘Land of the free, home of the brave,’ with Washington’s mouth duct taped because in reality this is the “land of the thieves,” stolen from slaughtered natives, and was “home of the slaves.” America is the country who refused to abolish the barbaric practice of slavery for another 30 years later than Europe; and even that took a civil war.

News flash Ras most land was "stolen" from someone else by means of war. It's human nature that historically has always occurred. America isn't special for this. The same thing is taking place somewhere on the streets right not for drug/gang turf. I hate to continue to be the bearer of bad news kiddo but.......................are you sitting down? Slavery IS STILL IN FULL EFFECT ALL OVER THE WORLD! You were a slave when you were locked up, human trafficking is taking place, there are sex slaves, sweat shops, prisoners of war, hell there may even someone locked away in the basement in a house on your block. You are slave now in the US, you just don't realize it because you aren't specifically being detained in one location. Well, that is until you lose your passport and then you'll be locked into the country. Or if the court orders you to wear an ankle bracelet. No one can freely move about any longer in this world. Sooner or late you will run onto some power that will forcefully stop you and good luck not working for the 1% aka master. Let's see how far any of us get by doing that.

We kill God through ignorance which leads to hatred. Especially, through rationalized ignorance, which I believe is original sin. Verse one of the song extensively deals with major inconsistencies within Judeo-Christian theology. Because of the history and core root of those religions, it still denotes the Egyptian King of the Gods, Amen-Ra (Amun-Ray), so I ask why would any logical person who worships a monotheistic God repeat the name of a polytheist God at the end of their prayer by saying “Amen?” Didn’t those two gods fight when Moses’ brother Aaron turned his rod into a snake in Exodus 7:8–13? When Ashkenazi Jews create an anti-narrative towards Egyptians (Muslims), while Arabs create a counter-narrative towards Jews, it is ironic as they all share a similar African heritage.

Sigh
Saying Amen has nothing to do with Amun-Ray. It's simply a coincidence of the English language.

Definition
1. firm
a. metaph. faithful

2. verily, amen
a. at the beginning of a discourse - surely, truly, of a truth
b. at the end - so it is, so be it, may it be fulfilled. It was a custom, which passed over from the synagogues to the Christian assemblies, that when he who had read or discoursed, had offered up solemn prayer to God, the others responded Amen, and thus made the substance of what was uttered their own.

The word "amen" is a most remarkable word. It was transliterated directly from the Hebrew into the Greek of the New Testament, then into Latin and into English and many other languages, so that it is practically a universal word. It has been called the best known word in human speech. The word is directly related -- in fact, almost identical -- to the Hebrew word for "believe" (amam), or faithful.Thus, it came to mean "sure" or "truly", an expression of absolute trust and confidence. -- HMM
Source: http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/kjv/amen.html

Amen in Hebrew:
אָמֵן

Talk about a massive reach. The Egyptians written about in scriptures weren't Muslims. lol The Quran wasn't even written until after Christ. As far as creating our own narrative, we all create our own narrative. This letter is doing the same, I'm countering it.

There is no evidence what's so ever that the biblical narrative comes from "Ashkenazi Jews". The scriptures predate any historical mention of them by centuries. Stop it with the conspiracy theories, stick to facts.

Mormonism came about by Freemason Joseph Smith who created his own bible and incorporated Masonic elements into it. Don't try to blame Christian theology for that cult simply because it has the name Church attached to it.

I'll stop there.

http://www.thecoli.com/posts/12190525/

[Free Suge Knight, Gucci Mane, & BShmurda Welcome Home Tray D]

Here's a respiznonse:

Damn Ras is still drinking? smh
Let me get at this real quick. I was busy before..............but now I got time cuz! I'll write this from the perspective of Ras reading this himself.

The original album title of this album was How to Kill God, but pressure from digital/physical distributors and buyers forced the last minute name change to Blasphemy. This showed me the hypocrisy and blasphemous nature of so-called free speech in America. I always joke that if we would have called it How to Kill Allah, or How to Kill a nikka there would have been little or no resistance. But when you appear to attack the Judeo-Christian (white) ideal of God, then its offensive. Blasphemy indeed.

Talk about hypocrisy. You write something, sit on it for over a decade and then bow down to corporations and change it, then have the nerve to whine and play the race card. Like someone made you do it. You sure money aint yo god? [sarcasm]Yeah Ras go ahead and title your next album 'How to Kill Allah' absolutely nothing will happen. The religion of peace and it's followers are known worldwide for turning a blind eye to that type of stuff. :troll:[/sarcasm]

Blasphemy’s artwork denotes the American flag; ‘Land of the free, home of the brave,’ with Washington’s mouth duct taped because in reality this is the “land of the thieves,” stolen from slaughtered natives, and was “home of the slaves.” America is the country who refused to abolish the barbaric practice of slavery for another 30 years later than Europe; and even that took a civil war.

News flash Ras most land was "stolen" from someone else by means of war. It's human nature that historically has always occurred. America isn't special for this. The same thing is taking place somewhere on the streets right not for drug/gang turf. I hate to continue to be the bearer of bad news kiddo but.......................are you sitting down? Slavery IS STILL IN FULL EFFECT ALL OVER THE WORLD! You were a slave when you were locked up, human trafficking is taking place, there are sex slaves, sweat shops, prisoners of war, hell there may even someone locked away in the basement in a house on your block. You are slave now in the US, you just don't realize it because you aren't specifically being detained in one location. Well, that is until you lose your passport and then you'll be locked into the country. Or if the court orders you to wear an ankle bracelet. No one can freely move about any longer in this world. Sooner or late you will run onto some power that will forcefully stop you and good luck not working for the 1% aka master. Let's see how far any of us get by doing that.

We kill God through ignorance which leads to hatred. Especially, through rationalized ignorance, which I believe is original sin. Verse one of the song extensively deals with major inconsistencies within Judeo-Christian theology. Because of the history and core root of those religions, it still denotes the Egyptian King of the Gods, Amen-Ra (Amun-Ray), so I ask why would any logical person who worships a monotheistic God repeat the name of a polytheist God at the end of their prayer by saying “Amen?” Didn’t those two gods fight when Moses’ brother Aaron turned his rod into a snake in Exodus 7:8–13? When Ashkenazi Jews create an anti-narrative towards Egyptians (Muslims), while Arabs create a counter-narrative towards Jews, it is ironic as they all share a similar African heritage.

Sigh
Saying Amen has nothing to do with Amun-Ray. It's simply a coincidence of the English language.

Definition
1. firm
a. metaph. faithful

2. verily, amen
a. at the beginning of a discourse - surely, truly, of a truth
b. at the end - so it is, so be it, may it be fulfilled. It was a custom, which passed over from the synagogues to the Christian assemblies, that when he who had read or discoursed, had offered up solemn prayer to God, the others responded Amen, and thus made the substance of what was uttered their own.

The word "amen" is a most remarkable word. It was transliterated directly from the Hebrew into the Greek of the New Testament, then into Latin and into English and many other languages, so that it is practically a universal word. It has been called the best known word in human speech. The word is directly related -- in fact, almost identical -- to the Hebrew word for "believe" (amam), or faithful.Thus, it came to mean "sure" or "truly", an expression of absolute trust and confidence. -- HMM
Source: http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/kjv/amen.html

Amen in Hebrew:
אָמֵן

Talk about a massive reach. The Egyptians written about in scriptures weren't Muslims. lol The Quran wasn't even written until after Christ. As far as creating our own narrative, we all create our own narrative. This letter is doing the same, I'm countering it.

There is no evidence what's so ever that the biblical narrative comes from "Ashkenazi Jews". The scriptures predate any historical mention of them by centuries. Stop it with the conspiracy theories, stick to facts.

Mormonism came about by Freemason Joseph Smith who created his own bible and incorporated Masonic elements into it. Don't try to blame Christian theology for that cult simply because it has the name Church attached to it.

I'll stop there.

http://www.thecoli.com/posts/12190525/

Stamp.  Amen