Ras Kass Interview

[Darksider]

By popular demand (and incessant bitching), here's the Ras interview that now only 35 people are gonna see 'cause waiting a few extra days to present it as part of a new site layout would have caused a few cats on here to have a stroke. What a waste of time for Ras, Spon, and myself. Well, enjoy!

NOTE: *1,000 or less posts = at least 1 question asked, **2,000 or more posts = at least 2 questions asked, and ***3,000 or more posts = at least 2 questions asked

*Voice Of Reason asks: What R&B bitches does he want to fuck now?

Ras Kass: Now? Shit, there’s lots of cute ones. Damn, should I be honest about this question? I wanna see what Ciara looks like in real life. Christina Milian could get it. Of course, my boo, Alicia Keys is crazy. Res is gorgeous. I’ll start with Res first.

**DiSsARaY asks: What are you reading right now, listening to right now...? What books, films, or music albums have influenced you?

Ras Kass: Good question. I’m reading nothing now. I took some time to chill. I bought every album that came out when I got out. The only thing I didn’t get that I need to go get is De La Soul’s album. I wanna hear that. I was feeling some stuff on Young Buck’s album. And I like Jean Grae. There’s a song on Xzibit’s album, “Beware Of Us,” that’s fuckin’ crazy to me.
All movies influence me. A movie can take you anywhere for that two hours. If it’s a fantasy, sci-fi, drama, comedy, or whatever – I just like movies. At their greatest, a record is a scene in a movie. If the music is right to fit [the scene]. You can’t have a love scene with rock music playing. If you got the right lyrics with the right beat, you can close your eyes and envision the whole thing. That’s what I enjoy about movies. A good movie will take me wherever it was intending to take me. So I watch a lot of movies, read a lot of various things. History books influence me. I just like reading a lot of history books. I don’t really read any rap magazines. They’re not something I’m interested in. I haven’t read any in a long time. Maybe I’m a hater, I don’t know. As far as light reading, I read Anne Rice, vampire shit. And I read Us Weekly just to see what Hollywood is doing, just to laugh. I don’t wanna know about rap music people, I wanna know about the actors because they do even more bizarre shit than the rappers do.

*Hyena asks: What I would like to know is if you listen to any other music besides Rap/ R&B, and if so what artists outside of the world of Rap/R&B have influenced you?

Ras Kass: I listen to a lot of different things. At this particular point, I just haven’t been listening to music period. I listen to a lot of different things, it just depends. If I’m exposed to it and I hear it and like it I fuck with it. That ranges anywhere from jazz to alternative shit, to world music, it just depends.

The Blueprint asks: What's your favorite 2pac album? Why?

Ras Kass: Whoa, that’s a hard question. I’m gonna give an honorable mention to Me Against The World, but I’m gonna go ahead and say Makaveli. The reason being is because as Jay-Z did with The Blueprint – his seminal record to bring it all the way back, to glue point A to point Z - I think that’s what Makaveli did for 2Pac. And unfortunately he passed right after that album was done. But he did it before Jay. He did it before anybody. Nobody ever glued A to Z. Like, this is what I was on from the beginning. I kinda played the game of the industry, got wrapped up in my image and did these albums, but this is what I’m really on. Which was this shit from the beginning. So now that you on my dick I’ma serve you the same steak and eggs that you didn’t want in the beginning. I think that’s what ‘Pac did with the Makaveli album. It was the fulfillment of bringing it all the way back.

Ole Skool Smookey Lookey asks: How do you feel about Rap artists who claim they dumbed (or maybe they were dumb aready?) down their style just to sell?

Ras Kass: I think that’s part of the business, and I don’t knock a person for dumbing themselves down to a certain extent. It’s like a teacher. If your teacher walked in when you was in the first grade – they went to college and learned everything about math and you still don’t know 1+1, so what the fuck are they gonna start trying to teach you square roots for? That’s part of the business like, Yeah, I could probably give you so much more than what I’m giving you but you ain’t ready for it. But let me do the steps so you can grow with me. I can preach to the converted all day, but what’s the point of that? Let me get the muthafuckas that’s maybe slightly trying to get with it to grow with me. Then when it’s time I’ll give you geometry and trigonometry. Then you gotta keep in mind, some people just dumb, homie. You can’t be mad at them because they not saying nothing except what they know. How you gonna be mad at somebody ‘cause all they know is 1+1? There’s no fuckin’ LSAT test that you gotta take to be a rapper.

ReKtor asks: How do you think your flow changed over the years?

Ras Kass: Well, I can say this, I come from the ciphers, I come from battle-rapping. My whole thing initially was battling the beat. The complete opposite of me is somebody like a Pharoahe Monch, or a Busta Rhymes, who always was in the pocket of a beat, and whatever the beat was doing they was kinda fuckin’ with that. Their expertise is styling. I was never a styling expert. Not that I wasn’t capable of it, but that wasn’t what I focused on. I focused on what the fuck I was saying in between the beat. I was substance as opposed to delivery. It’s not that I wasn’t capable of doing it. I just had a focus. I wanted to get this shit off my chest. Now, there’s still things I wanna get off my chest but I like to play with the parameters of whatever the beat is telling me to do. So I don’t fight the beat. Unless it’s a beat that was built to battle on, and then I air it out. Which is probably closer to like a “Caution” beat, where I can just air it.

***Brotha Jay asks: Do you still want that underground/backpacker image that a lot of these Internet kids seem to think that you still are?

Ras Kass: I never wanted it! I wore a backpack too, ‘cause when I was in the club and I was pulling out my fifth of Hennessy or whatever else was in there, I needed something to carry it with. [Laughs] But in the nouveau since of backpacker, I was never that. Maybe in the old-school days you could consider Nas, to Jay-Z, to Eminem [backpackers]. All of us came out of backpacking. In a hip-hop club back in the day you was gonna find bad bitches, you was gonna find the earthy chick, you was gonna find gangbangers in white t-shirts, there was no dress code to what was “underground hip-hop.” And you was gonna find me, and I had on a sweater, a diamond earring, and a gold watch. I am hip-hop, and I am underground, of course. And I’m proud of that. But I’m not whatever the fuck these weird muthafuckas are trying to make underground hip-hop to be. So if that means I have to declassify myself… Because I been the same dude my whole life. Especially in my rappin’ life, I been the same dude. And I was a dude where my bitch had on a dress and some expensive heels on at the hip-hop club. She didn’t have bellbottoms on, eating a chew stick. I never wore size 48 pants and fuckin’ suede Addidas. If you trying to make that what underground hip-hop is, if that’s the now new accepted definition, then first of all I totally disagree, and no I’m not that.

OrdoAbchao asks: Out of all the MCs you have worked with so far, which ones did you feel you had the best connection with both personally and on the track?

Ras Kass: I don’t know. That’s a good question. I’m a fan of everybody that I’ve worked with or been in the studio with and socialized with, some more than others. There’s some people’s personalities that I get something from. There’s a depth to them that maybe I feel is the same depth that I have. I personally think Xzibit is one of the brightest people I know, and one of the best hearts. Mos Def is also like that. I think David Banner’s like that. I think Twista’s like that. There’s certain people that I definitely root for when I see them get successful. And because I know them personally, I really dig them as people. So even if they decided to work at McDonald’s, I would still wanna hang out with ‘em ‘cause they just got something about them. They got that light that’s shinin’. It’s a lot of people. I’m sure I haven’t mentioned everybody.

***Brotha Jay asks: Why do West Coast artists seem more likely to cut each others throat than build together?

Ras Kass: Probably the dynamic of how the situation is set up geographically. It’s set up to be very clickish and standoffish. Our city is very spread out. Which means everybody can ghettoize how they want. Like, literally in California Jamaicans don’t fuck with American blacks. They have their own clubs. There’s enough space to do that, where you never have to see American blacks. Like, We can all live over here. The Ethiopians do the same thing. The Jews do the same thing. The Irish do the same thing. Now, for example, in New York it’s geographically a very small space. And New York is built up, so everybody is stacked on top of each other and you gotta fuck with each other. So [California] just geographically helps to create division.

J T asks: When r u and Chino Xl gonna make an album together?!

Ras Kass: I don’t know. [Laughs] That’s my answer.

*Doctor Know asks: Many people believe Khalil’s “Van Gogh” beat and your emotional lyrics on that track made a great collaboration. Will there be any future collaboration [between the two of you]?

Ras Kass: I been working with Khalil since before “Van Gogh.” It’s good that Khalil is getting his shine from working with G-Unit, 50 Cent, and Dr. Dre. I still work with Khalil. I always did work with Khalil. It’s really just the process of making the songs that fit the album or fit the concept of whatever album that you’re doing at the time. We did a lot of shit. I been knowing Khalil and Chace Infinite – Self Scientific – for fuckin’ 10 years plus. We all grew up together. Everybody’s path veers, but we’ve always worked together. We already did one [new track], and we gonna probably do another couple. But we got shit niggas ain’t never heard that we did.

Mdvl asks: I believe Canibus and yourself are in the top percentage of all-time greatest MCs. No disrespect to '4 horsemen', but would prefer a project combining Ras-n-‘Bis. Wake-up show performances are classic and would be [a] great bonus disc to any future releases.
Thanks for sharing your soul globally since day 1 that you put it down on wax. Keep afloat and all the best to yourself and your twin soldiers.

Ras Kass: Thank You very much. I appreciate it. I appreciate everybody taking the time to ask a couple of questions. And my bad for being a little late. My apologies to Spon and raskass-central, and I’ll be on top of it from this point on. I’m not as computer savvy as I should be. And my laptop is in my house in New York.
Not that I can’t see [a Ras-n-‘Bis album], it’s just that you can’t please everybody. Like, I have a group that at this point is me and Xzibit, and by extension is Re-Up and Open Bar – which is Strong Arm Steady, who Xzibit fucks with, and I fuck with Scipio – but it’s still a collective though. Now some people might say, I don’t like so-and-so. We can’t please everybody. We have our unit and our team how it is, and that’s just how it is. I wouldn’t say, Well, guess what, people on the Internet said we shouldn’t have you in the group Killah Priest, so you gotta go. This is our team, our homies, our relationships. It ain’t about everybody’s opinion. It’s about your friends who you built something with and being true to that. I can’t please everybody. I do better pleasing me.

reverence asks: Wuz up wit him & Mykill Miers; how’s their relationship & do they plan on working together?

Ras Kass: I got love for everybody from C-Arson. Diverse is a producer, and he did a song on Young Buck’s album. There’s so much talent in C-Arson, and I’m supportive of everybody. But you gotta go your path, and I gotta go my path. And we’ll meet, and there’s no personal animosity. But you gotta understand that we’re people and so you never know what the back-story is. There’s always a back-story to everything, but it’s nothing that I care to speak on. I’m just doing me, and who I’m fuckin’ with is who I fuck with.

Obek120 asks: Would Ras be opposed to doing a concept album with just him and one producer, something like what Murs and 9th wonder did or Aceyalone and Elusive have done in recent years (ie: more of an old school concept of album making with a new and improved RAS KASS approach)? Because in the age of having every MC you know or every good producer on one album, sometimes the album loses it appeal or its affect. The albums now, become throwaways instead of classic. In my opinion, I would definitely like to hear Ras on a lot of the popular producers beats or rap with good MCs, but I would also just like to hear Ras' thoughts what he is thinking or feels like expressing without outside influence from other artist/producers (just the man and a mic). I don’t know just an idea.

Ras Kass: Quite a few producers have posed that idea to me - some very successful producers have posed that concept before. I’m open, but I got a plan, and I got a concept, and there’s some things I wanna do first. That’s a time consuming thing. I also think vibes are very important, and in this day and age you and one person’s vibes are gonna get monotonous after awhile. I don’t know if I believe you can really do a dope ass album with just you and one producer. It like if I give you whatever your favorite ice cream is, I give you three scoops and now you want some more like, Damn, that shit was good as fuck. But if I gave you a tub full of the shit you can’t even appreciate it, you gonna get sick of it like, Ugh, I don’t even like that ice cream no more. Too much of a good thing can definitely happen.

lankeybama asks: What do you think about the remix albums people like 9th wonder and other producers have been doing for Nas and Jay-Z stuff? Would you ever consider letting producers do that with your stuff?

Ras Kass: Yeah! I mean, I think it’s cool. They’re gonna interpret everything differently. The whole movie thing once again, they might hear different music for this particular scene in the movie. So I think that’s dope. I always wanted to make the accapella’s available, but a lot of that stuff I don’t have. I think it’s so vaulted that I’m never gonna have it, and nobody’s gonna have it, but anything in the recent past [that somebody wants to remix], I’m definitely down with that.

chrisfx asks: Do any of your previously shelved albums (which will be left nameless) have any chance of ever being released?

Ras Kass: Yeah. They have an 80/20 chance of being released. Ask me in what capacity, and I can’t answer that. My whole dream is to give ‘em to the world. It’s like having a baby. I was having a conversation with Mystic – and she’s a Grammy Award nominated artist for those that don’t know – about this. At the end of the day this is your baby. You go through all of these shits, you probably make tons of songs, and then you pick these 16 and that’s your baby like, I got it, this is my baby. All of that was a labor of love, you give birth, and then the doctor drops the baby on his fuckin’ head and breaks his neck. Not that you didn’t love the baby, but they just killed your baby. It can be very disheartening, very discouraging, and it can make you very jaded with the business. The music is only 5% of it, the business is the other 95%. And you want the best chance for your baby. You want your baby to have the best school, and eat the best food so it grows up healthy. So we put this work into these albums, but you want it promoted properly. And you want as many people to hear it as possible. It’s not about money per se, it’s about this is my child that I birthed, and just don’t malevolently kill my baby. So anything in the future, I want it right. I want you to set my baby up with a 401k before it even comes out.

**Michael Vick asks: You said you had plans for 2 separate albums, Underground Superhero and Nuclear Winter. Can you elaborate on the content of the two and the differences between the two, or have you scrapped the idea of doing them?

Ras Kass: Underground Superhero would be more like the high concept, one producer type of shit. I always wanted to subsidize Ras Kass – the lyrical dude, with the successful Ras Kass – the artist signed to a major label. Two different kinds of albums. The best way I can explain it is that when you go sign on the dotted line with a company with stockholders they don’t give a fuck about your lyrical styles. They just heard you were hot and you getting this kind of press. And now you’re in a whole different ballgame, ‘cause you just went from music to business. And you have a fiscal responsibility to yourself and to the people that are investing money in you to try to make records that are going to be marketable. And now in 2005 we have an understanding of what marketable is. The kinds of songs that are easier for people to grasp than a rap over African congas for 80 bars talking about the slave trade. So, you know that now it’s up to you to find your happy medium, your comfortable compromise. I would never sell my ass. But it’s just like a relationship with a bitch like, Okay, it’s cool that you don’t want me to leave my ashes on your table ‘cause it gets in your food. I respect that. Now if you say you want me to bend over and you wanna dildo me, bitch you’re crazy. Now some dudes will say, Fuck it baby, I love you so much here’s the dildo. But you can’t just say, Bitch, I’m not changing nothing. You entered into an agreement, and you should be responsible enough to realize that you’re in a business now. So like I said, my whole dream was to subsidize [my major-label releases with] the Underground Superhero’s, the Horsemen projects, and shit like that. It’s all music, it’s all creativity, it’s just shit that may not be commercially viable. So I’m doing it strictly out of the love for it by entering into the business with these people to make records that can be moderately successful – let’s just say Gold and Platinum. If they’re happy, I’m happy, and the heads are happy, then I can concentrate on high concept records. I can’t do 10 high concept records and expect some label to wanna put that out. Unfortunately, in the world we live in, I can do 10 baby I love you-and he don’t love you like I do-and I’ma buy you a Bentley records and the bitches are gonna love that. And that’s corny. Or I can do 10 I’m hard-I sell crack-and I kill niggas all the time records, and the label’s gonna roll with that and the thugs are gonna love it. And then when I take my shirt off and show my bullet wounds the bitches gonna love that too. People in the industry and the streets are just as corny as the backpackers. You gotta figure out which way you wanna go. Do I wanna sell to these stupid bitches and these corny ass industry niggas, and the street niggas that don’t know nothing – 1+1 – or do I want to sell to these college white kids and still breakdancing, graffiti writing cats who think if I wear any kind of jewelry I’m selling out. So they’re happy when I’m broke and these other people are happy when I’m completely on some superficial bullshit, or some fake-ass love shit. What’s wrong with me being me? I got both sides tugging at me. And I have to ask, How come I can’t just be me, which is probably a little bit of both. When the fuck wasn’t that cool? But to answer the question, the album that I’m doing now is more so Ras Kass as the artist in the music business, but what I wanna do after that is the Underground Superhero record. Or, I’ll just retro back and give everybody the Catch Me If U Can record, but a little more polished.

**WizKid asks: Is there a possibility of getting a better quality version of “Disenchanted Hero” (since the version on Re Up had horrible sound quality)?

Ras Kass: Nope. It’s not gonna happen. God knows where the fuckin’ actual masters are. I’m sure Capitol doesn’t have ‘em. I don’t know what I did with ‘em, and that’s all we had. I gave [Empire Musicwerks] the dat of the song. Khalil might have it, which I doubt seriously. Khalil did that beat. Long story short, when we did it we just put a rough mix on it, and then I just came across it like a year or two years later and was like, You know what I like this song. Hey, it’s fuckin’ backpack underground shit. That’s hip-hop shit. That’s why I just didn’t give a fuck and just put it on there like it is.

**WizKid also asks: Are the Soul on Ice Demo tracks available in good quality, and if so would you ever consider releasing them as an appetizer to hold your fans over?

Ras Kass: Let me just say this, keep in mind hip-hop dudes the studio cost $1,400 a day. To mix records from 10 years ago then I gotta sell records to have the money to do that type of shit. Some things aren’t gonna happen because they’re not financially viable. I would love to, but I can’t do it, at least not today. Because financially, what I would have to invest to get that done, I’m not gonna get any return on it.

Wu Renegade asks: On the track 'The End feat RZA' from Rasassination, who's idea was it to sample Jordan Maxwell at the end of the track?

Ras Kass: Me. I would always watch the tapes. Funny enough, a lot of times it would be Bad Azz, Numbskull from The Luniz, and everybody would be at my house, kinda like hood church. We would go out to the club and act stupid, and do all that type of shit. And then all the homies would come to the house, and we just be chillin’ and watch these tapes. I just thought it was applicable to the song anyway. So I had already put the Jordan Maxwell in before I got the song to RZA.

Brock asks: Was "Sonset" directed to anyone in particular?

Ras Kass: No. Sometimes I do collective disses. I might have a couple of people in mind. But just out of respect for the fact that the past is the past, I wouldn’t talk about who I was talking to. It all kinda started because at the time there were a lot of muthafuckas takin’ pot shots, shittin’ on the West on mixtapes. Some of your favorite artists, artists I never thought would even shit on the West was shittin’ on us, just saying slick shit. And I’m eyes and ears. I’m not the dude that’s sittin’ in L.A. and not hearing nothing. I was keeping an open ear to hear everything. So I just was fed up. Niggas would come hear and try to act cool but then get on New York radio and shit on us.

Tussin asks: On your Re-Up compilation, track 7 – “Billboard #1,” is the diss directed at targets such as Ja Rule [and/or] Snoop Dogg? ("Got dissed by Eminem - said I dressed real feminine" - a diss to Eminem from Ja Rule, and with the advent of Snoop Dogg releasing R & G I'm curious [to know] if you're referring him to having the "formula locked")

Ras Kass: Nah, I did that song like two-and-a-half years ago, and Snoop just came out with R & G. I’d be like Tupac prophet dude if that was the case. Like I said, I do a lot of collective shit, so it wasn’t at anybody in particular, it’s just a lot of cases. I just do case study. So I just lumped a whole bunch of careers I’ve seen come and go and fizzle together.

*Dstylz asks: Ask him about the Game beef.

Ras Kass: I ain’t got no beef with Game. Now if Game has beef with Ras Kass, then so be it. I don’t have a Game beef.

*Spitting Image asks: It seems that in the songs "Ah-Ha" and "Razzy Music" you appear to be taking direct/indirect shots at Nas, and there was speculation he had a line about you in his song "Book of Rhymes.” Is or was there [ever] a lyrical exchange between you two? If there was, how did this come about?

Ras Kass: He just said soul on ice, I don’t get how he was dissin’ me? I’m acquainted with Nas, I know Nas, I’m a fan of Nas, and I never wrote a rhyme speaking of Nas in a negative way. If anything I thought it was kind of endearing that he said soul on ice. Of course, any hip-hop person would be like, Oh, soul on ice, that’s Ras Kass. So I thought it was kind of dope. I appreciated that. That was cool. I never took a shot at Nas, and I don’t think he took a shot at me.

**Michael Vick asks: What was the biggest thing you learned from being locked up for two years?

Ras Kass: Don’t go to prison. [Laughs]

Honkey Lips asks: You mention some interesting books and authors in past songs and interviews and base parts of your songs off ideas in these books including Dr. Frances Cress Welsing's "The Isis Papers" and Ishakamusa Barashango's "Afrikan People and European Holidays: A Mental Genocide" books. While you were on lock down did you have access to any good literature? If so, what authors and books. Have they had any influence on topics for future songs? Thanks for your time.

Ras Kass: I can’t remember the authors. One of the coolest books that I did get that I personally enjoyed was “A People’s History of the United States.” It’s a really dope book. I think everybody should read that book. And another one I enjoyed was about how they got the DaVinci code. They actually mention the book in “The DaVinci Code,” because their whole theory is based off of it. It’s a historical book that was mentioned in the fictional book “The DaVinci Code.” I can’t think of the name of it, but it’s a good book. I haven’t recorded any songs yet that necessitated me using [these books].

Randy Moss asks: Any dope MC's in jail?

Ras Kass: Yeah, a couple of really dope ones. I’m already fuckin’ with one, El Dogg. He’s part of Re-Up. He’s raw. He’s a gangbangin’ lyrical dude.

*Artifacts asks: What is the status of the Horsemen album that is supposed to drop?

Ras Kass: We gonna do it, but we gotta do it the right way. It’s cool that Killah Priest let the people get the stuff we did. He gave it to the world and I’m never mad at that. But I don’t think that should be the judgment of what the Horsemen could be, that was just what we was doing at that time. When we do the Horsemen shit it’ll be right. I got big visions for what that album could really be. That shit could be crazy, but it’s gotta be right. Kurupt has some legal contractual shit that he needs to fix, as do I. When shit is right that’s when you do shit. So we’ll do it when shit is right.

*Artifacts also asks: What is gonna happen with the Golden State project now that Saafir retired?

Ras Kass: I think the Golden State is always gonna be in existence because Xzibit is one of my best friends. We pretty much did this shit together from day one. And that’s who’s pretty much the Golden State at this point. We ain’t never discussed [bringing in a replacement for Saafir]. As far as I’m concerned the Golden State always exist whether Saafir chooses to rhyme or not, which is his prerogative.

the WATERPROOF asks: Is the album going to be introspective? Political? Street? Club? Some combination? Are you looking to make a cohesive album with some loose theme around it, or are you just putting up your strongest tracks, regardless of how they relate to one another?

Ras Kass: “Caution” would be the best indication [of what to expect from Institutionalized], and that’s why I put it out. It’s the best indication of the shit I’m on right now and the direction of where this album is going.

**DiSsARaY asks: Where do you want to be in 5 years? What is your goal in the music industry and in your personal life for the next 5-10 years?

Ras Kass: In 5 years I wanna have $5 million in cash and a valid ghetto pass. I’m doing three more albums and then Scipio takes over the West.

ZeXel asks: Do you feel that it's finally your time?

Ras Kass: Yep. And I never said that before! Never said that. Yeah I do feel that it’s finally my time, and that’s what’s crazy.

- INTERVIEW CONDUCTED BY SPON AND PAUL W. ARNOLD

http://raskass-central.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=21&t=5109&s=7fd79c1af90f7b510a857f8f2281f904

[DPG4Life]

thx a lot
good read

id love to see ras blowing up

[Don Seer]

tight shit!

[wcsoldier]

good can't wait for some Ras shit

[Doggystylin]

we need some new official shit from him, i miss ras kass

[Westside Soldier]

thanks