Ras Kass

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Advertising poster for a tour of South Africa, with the stylized portrait of Ras Kass'
Advertising poster for a tour of South Africa, with the stylized portrait of Ras Kass'
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Soul On Ice
  US 169 October 19, 1996 (1 week)
Rasassination
  US 63 10/10/1998 (3 weeks)

Ras Kass (born September 25, 1973 in Watts , California ; real name John Austin ) is an American rapper .

biography

John Austin was an avid reader in his youth. He finally gave himself the stage name Ras Kass, based on the Ethiopian title Ras and the real name of Emperor Yohannes IV. Under this pseudonym he appeared as a b-boy and rapper at parties in California. He got his first attention through some singles published independently . Among other things, he won the “Rhyme of the Month” award from Rap Pages magazine twice within six months and the “Hip Hop Quotable” award from The Source magazine with the piece Remain Anonymous . Thus it was on the 1994 posse cut Wake Up Show Anthem '94 gefeaturet on which among other things, Nas and Lauryn Hill were represented.

This secured Ras Kass the opportunity to get a record deal , which he eventually signed with Priority Records . On this label he released his debut album Soul on Ice in 1996 , which went to number 169 on the Billboard 200 for a week . The successor Rasassination , published in 1998, was more successful and reached the highest position 63, also because of the background music from well-known producers such as RZA or Dr. Dre .

This strategy was to be pursued in his third work, Van Gogh , which was carried out with the support of Dr. Dre, DJ Premier and Hi-Tek had already been completed and should be launched in 2001. However, Priority Records was taken over by Capitol Records at that time and in the course of the restructuring Van Gogh came into circulation as a bootleg , whereupon the label wrote off the marketing budget and canceled the release.

Ras Kass then took on other songs that should appear in 2002 under the title Goldyn Chyld . This time, however, he could not agree on a single release with the label and after he was sentenced to 19 months in prison for drunk driving , the company finally dropped him.

In the following years he released numerous mixtapes and albums on his own, partly with the help of alternative sales and financing channels such as Kickstarter.com , Bandcamp and Indiegogo .

A brief beef with the then newcomer The Game also caused a stir .

Another album was released in 2008 with Institutionalized, Volume 2 , which was again classically released on the Babygrande Records label. Just like the other phonograms, however, it no longer achieved importance in the mainstream .

In addition, Ras Kass was still a member of two groups during this time: on the one hand with Xzibit and Saafir in the Golden State Project , on the other hand with Canibus , Killah Priest and Kurupt as The HRSMN . Both projects remained without published long players.

Style and reception

Ras Kass is known as the “rapper the rappers”, who is valued by his colleagues, but who is not well received by the general public. This is due on the one hand to the poor quality of the music that is underlaid in his raps and often does not fit his style despite well-known producers, and on the other hand to his complex texts, which are characterized by numerous metaphors , puns and subtle punch lines .

The topics dealt with in his raps are also not suitable for the masses. He often rhymes about politics and religion, sometimes with conspiracy theories.

However, this style is often recognized by professional critics. He was once listed among the 50 best MCs by the Internet portal About.com and named one of the best rappers of all time by Rollie Pemberton for Pitchfork Media .

Discography

Albums
  • 1996: Soul on Ice
  • 1998: Rasassination
  • 2001: Van Gogh (unpublished)
  • 2002: Goldyn Chyld (unpublished)
  • 2005: Institutionalized
  • 2006: Eat or Die
  • 2007: Razzy Kazzy
  • 2007: Chinese Graffiti (with Jay 211 and Namebrand)
  • 2008: Institutionalized, Volume 2
  • 2010: ADIDAS (All Day I Dream About Spittin) (with DJ Rhettmatic)
  • 2013: Barmageddon
  • 2014: Blasphemy (with Apollo Brown)
  • 2014: Barmageddon 2.0
  • 2016: Intellectual Property
  • 2019: Soul On Ice 2

Filmography

  • 1997: Rhyme & Reason
  • 1998: I Got the Hook Up
  • 2002: The Brotherhood

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Billboard : Ras Kass - Chart history
  2. ↑ Kickstarter.com : Ras Kass: ADIDAS
  3. ^ Bandcamp : Ras Kass
  4. ↑ Indiegogo : Ras Kass Soul on Ice 2
  5. ↑ Allmusic : Rasassination - Ras Kass | Songs, reviews, credits
  6. ↑ Allmusic: Institutionalized, Vol. 2 - Ras Kass | Songs, reviews, credits
  7. ↑ laut.de : Ras Kass
  8. ^ Rollie Pemberton: Jedi Mind Tricks: Visions of Gandhi Album Review. Pitchfork Media , August 26, 2003, accessed May 21, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Ras Kass
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Austin, John (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American rapper
DATE OF BIRTH September 25, 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH Watts , California