Write Where He Left Off?

I just wanted to speak about one the greatest rappers no ones ever heard of. The H20 proof MC, Ras Kass. Just in case you have no idea who this cat is, let me shed some light on one of the strangest hip hop odysseys ever!
Ras is west coast lyricist that hails from C-Arson, California. In the late 90's he released single "Remain Anonymous" b/w "Won't Catch Me Running" and the Source Magazine gave him critical acclaim and the Hip Hop Quotable of the month (remember when those mattered) . From there he signed to Priority/Capitol records and released the incredible but highly slept on album Soul On Ice, which by the way before the digital musical age was going for over 100 bucks on ebay. To this day, I still can't comprehend everything that was said in "Nature Of the Threat". Sadly the album was over every one's heads and priority quickly put it out of print. Next came Rassination with the Dr Dre assisted "Ghetto Fabulous". Which was given mostly positive reviews but didn't register much sales wise. All set to release his 3rd album Van Gough but the project was bootlegged and he had to head back to the studio to re-record tracks and then changed the album title to the Goldyn Child. Ras was arrested for a DUI and the whole project ended up being shelved. Now is where it gets dicey. Ras was set to turn himself in but instead stole the masters and went on the run. Ras was finally jailed for 19 months and had been at war with Capital records trying to get out of his contract. He has since been freed from his labels shackles and released from jail . In the mean time he released a slew of mixtapes type projects: Institutionalized, Revenge of the Spit, Eat or Die and Institutionalized vol.2. to please his hardcore fans. Though those projects were a much needed return for Ras Kass to the game, they didn't have that cohesive album feel.


Which leads us into his newest project, the 26 track digital double album A.D.I.D.A.S. (All Day I Dream About Spitting). Normally I ain't really feeling double albums cause that second disk usually has all the left overs and b-list guest rappers and ends up been a coaster somewhere till your broke and need it to trade it in to Streetlight, but other than about 5 tracks or so this ones a winner. My personal favorite track is Where Did She Go produced by Beat Junkie's DJ Babu. " And youngster tell me I'm out of touch cause I don't wear skinny jeans that expose my nuts/ and I'm suppose to what? act like most yall fucks and wear some chucks, I'd rather be in a cobra clutch" It's how I feel whenever I hear or see the wack shit that passes for hip hop nowadays. Other standout tracks include : Attitudes 2012 ft. Royce da 5'9" , Linguistics ft. Skillz, Beautiful Grind ft. Evidence, Muse-Sick ft. Jahaira . With production from the likes of Alchemist, Mr. Porter, DJ Cannon, DJ Babu, DJ Rhettmatic and Ras spitting fire like it's 93 again, this has been my 5 mic/XXL album of the year so far.



Listen to A.D.I.D.A.S. and judge for yourself.

This post was written by:
doubleagent zero