Ras Kass

By Allen Gordon

How much did Xzibit’s working with Dr. Dre influence what you were trying to accomplish with the composition of the new album? I know you want mass sales, but at the same time want to keep your art at a high level.

With Battlecat doing production. . . that goes back to the beginning. On my first album, Soul On Ice, Battlecat did production when he wasn’t as popular, so I already knew he was hot. As far as other artists, it’s all about resources. Sometimes you won’t know who is making what until an album comes out. That’s how people get discovered. For me, more than seeking out names, I just looked for people that I liked and checked to see if they were interested in working with me. When that connection was made we just tried to come up with music that was still me and still them, not sounding like anything else that is out there.

When did you start working on this album? It’s been almost four years.

You know what? After you finish an album and it comes out in the stores you start working on a new album. Whether it’s mentally or physically. You know what I mean? So I don’t know how many songs I went through. There are songs that were never recorded that I had written down or were unfinished, and I‘d come back to them months later, combine them with verses of other ideas or not use them at all. I really can’t answer this question. I’ve been working on this album since my last one, at least in my mind, and I didn’t keep a log of ideas or songs that didn’t make this album.

Is there anything on the new album, Van Gogh, that you weren’t able to do on previous albums?

There was nothing that I wasn’t going to do. I thought I had a good blueprint of what to do from Soul On Ice and Rasassination to the new album Van Gogh. This album is the natural evolution.

If that acceptance from a mass market doesn't come, what kind of pressures would be put on you to find a happy medium? You want Black folks to hear and feel you, but that support doesn’t seem to be there in huge numbers.

I kept my options open. The funny thing is, perception is weird, even deceiving. If you take a beat and somebody sings over it, it becomes R&B. That same beat with someone screaming and scratching over it becomes alternative rock/hip hop. It’s the same beat. So in my case I just put essence over and create music that is still indicative of me. Strip down all the beats and listen from the first album to this one, it’s still me. I always had battle raps, street raps, philosophical raps, personal shit- I just balanced the albums out with everything that makes me. Experiences, observations, ideas, dreams, opinions, funny shit . . . all of that has been on my albums and in some cases all in one song. I think I’m still that person, I’ve just gotten older.

What about the fans' perception? The underground only wanted the philosophical Ras and thugged out cats wasn’t trying to hear about philosophy.

That was their fault. People talk about "Soul On Ice" or "Nature of the Threat", but there was 13 other joints on Soul On Ice. Like Battlecat’s work on "Marinatin"-"We can marinate, get nice and stack riches/But it’s BYOB, bring your own bud, brew and bitches." I had other songs like "Miami Life" was some street shit or "Drama" with Coolio, was some sex shit. So, people tend to pigeonhole you into one thing, or what they choose to see you as. I can honestly say that I am the duality that I represent. I’m pretty fucked up. Sometimes I’m good, and sometimes I am extremely fucked up. I try to be honest about that in my raps.

I think that is one of your strengths. Only a few artists are that honest and can parlay that in songs. I think that you have hip hop fans, gangsta rap fans and casual consumers. Casual consumers are what is driving the sales of the industry because they are programmed to buy what MTV, radio and BET says is hot. How do you strategize for an audience that doesn’t really exist.

I’m pretty sure I’m not unique in those terms. The label can’t force you to do anything, unless they fire you. What they can do to bend your arm is limit your resources. Limit your money, or not respond to your needs and facilitate crucial paperwork in a timely fashion. Every label has an A-team, B-team, C-team and sometimes a D-team. When you don’t cooperate with you get dropped from one team down to the next. If you get demoted to the C-team, you’ll probably get dropped unless your album hits big. For the most part they coerce you by treating you shitty. I was known to call a spade a spade, so it's all a game of chess and you have to make your moves and do what you can to win and feel good about yourself. There is shit I listened to back in the day that I grew out of. So I think with the resources I had, I made the best album I could make. I covered my spectrum, so it’s not lopsided and funny style. It’s Soul On Ice Part 3.

How did you decide what producers you were going to work with? Was it based on budget? New sounds?

Well, Battlecat was a given. Mike City, who does a lot of R&B with Carl Thomas, Dave Hollister and Sunshine Anderson, was cool. We was running together when I wasn’t even recording. Mike and the cats from Soul Life just kinda took me in as a peer which made me feel good. Niggas was just real and it turned out that the music we made was hot. Ric Roc I met when he was working with Xzibit. There are other cats who may really make their name on this album. Then I reached out to some niggas who just wasn’t fucking with me.

What? On the price tip of the tracks or budget for the album?

Naw, it was more like, "I’m busy. Who are you? You’re not hot." Some niggas is only fucking with platinum artists. Whatever, I couldn’t take it too personal. It can piss a nigga off, but fuck it. But I made sure that the cats that I was working with had everything straight as far as getting paid, the paperwork and we got it done. I worked with a lot of lesser known cats and recorded, all which were hot, so it’s on the album.

Is there anything that you asked your label for on this album that you haven’t gotten in the past? Bigger budget or more aggressive marketing. . . .

Man, a record label deal is a relationship. You have to look at it like a relationship with a girlfriend that sometimes you just can’t stand. And that works both ways. It’s real dysfunctional at times. I can’t be mad all the time, there are people my age working at McDonald’s. I just have to take the good with the bad, keep mashing and turn it all into a plus. You can look at the situation like a glass of water that is half empty, where I prefer to look at it as half full.

Have you taken the same approach with the media and how they pigeonhole you and your music?

Sometimes it’s socially acceptable for them to like you. Sometimes they like you because they like you. And sometimes it might be the social climate to hate on an artist and what he represents or doesn’t represent. The media can make you or break you in the same breath. I can’t worry about that. Any person coming to interview me is going to form their opinion based on the mood I’m in or what they perceive they know about me and my music. If I’m quiet and got shit on my mind, I’m branded as arrogant. If I’m celebrating, then I’m branded as wild and irresponsible. They don’t know me, but all I can do is be me and roll with the punches. With the media and radio, those are invariables in this game. It’s like me battling a nigga with a microphone and I don’t have one. I can’t. So it’s pointless for me to specify. All I can do is roll with the blows. I’ve been shot in the foot by writers who have taken things so out-of-context that I know that it had to be on purpose. Everybody has an agenda or an ulterior motive.

Have you worked on the hooks for the radio songs? That was a concern I had as far as reaching new listeners with this album.

I don’t consider myself one of the greatest chorus creators in the world. I think I’m one of the worst. I can write a structured song, but as far as what the hook is going to be. . .I’m not that guy. I would keep my ear open to what the people around me were saying and I think I did all right. I knew hooks wasn’t one of my strong suits, so when other people brought it up I wasn’t offended at all.

You had Tray D from the Eastsidaz do the hook for "Kick Rocks" and knew how to blend his voice in with you on a Battlecat track.

He came off really dope. You’ve never heard Tray D sound like this. It’s Tray D, but it’s me and Tray D. Just like, you’d never guess the track was Battlecat, because he’s never produced a beat like this. I think it’s dope because the track doesn’t sound like traditional Battlecat, Tray D or Ras Kass, but it’s all of us.

I understand wanting to go platinum, but is it the sales or the money that is more important? Going platinum won’t mean millions of dollars for the artist.

With sales comes the springboard to other opportunities. When you sell a lot of units all the sudden people want you to act. People want you to wear their clothing line and do ads. You get money from that. All of the sudden people are asking you to headline a tour. An artist is not really here to get paid off a record at a major label, it’s just that sales put you in a position where people want to pay for your association and you can also move behind the scenes: movies, television, etc.

Has Xzibit’s association with Dr. Dre changed the direction of what the Golden State Project was initially going to be? Is that success contagious as far as shaping future projects?

I have evolved. Sonically, what my ear likes ranges from extreme to extreme. I like hardcore Hip Hop and I like gangsta shit. I think we, Golden State, are the culmination of West Coast rap music. When I started I picked a side, but still had songs like "Marinate" and whatnot, but with this project we really have chance to sew it up. We can bridge that gap and define West Coast Hip Hop on a large scale. So we have tracks like "3 Card Molly" and tracks that the hoodrats would dig. You want to have a game plan for success and with Xzibit having that it brings more ideas to the table because he’s been around something that is consistent with hit making.

What producers are you guys going to be working with?

We started recording weeks ago. I have a Golden State song on my album called "N.B.A." and we also have one on the Training Day soundtrack, "Bounce, Rock, Golden State". I think so far we’ve cut tracks with Battlecat, Thayod, Ric Roc, Rockwilder and we’ll be doing tracks with whoever else we may run into.

Is there anything that you want to accomplish outside of music that the success of Van Gogh and the Golden State Project will bring?

I draw. I’ve always drawn. I went to school for that, but if I had pursued it further I might be designing commercial advertising, digital graphics, doing movies, cartoons and shit. Drawing has been one of my passions in life, I got sidetracked by the music. When it came to paying bills doing an art, the opportunity to do music came first.

What would be the ideal situation for you to pursue animation or drawing?

The best way I can say it is, most people spend their life working for many and not many people have their money working for them and get to enjoy life. When my art works for me that would be ideal. But I have circumstances that I have to take care of, as well as, needs and wants. There are people that need to be taken care of like my mom, who should be retiring, my children should be going to the best schools. When my money is working for me I’m going to live. I’m fortunate that I’m in a business where I get to live while I’m working for my money. I’ve traveled the world to some degree and the next man hasn’t had that privilege. So I have to be thankful. Even when I didn’t have a dollar I was still in Japan.

Talk about the single "Back It Up" featuring Kokane. The title is a bit misleading from the actual music.

The song is pretty stand up. It’s a Ric Roc track and I know L.A. will get into it. I’m pretty sure the rest of the world will too. The perception may be West Coast rap, but it’s me and I’m saying the same things I’ve always said. I don’t have to wear khakis to claim I’m West. I was born and raised here, and I can spit so don’t be mad. It’s me on my own terms. I’m doing me, but I’m not prostituting myself. I hope a few more people can get with it and I think they will. Rasassination did double of what Soul On Ice sold, and I hope Van Gogh can double what Rasassination did.

What about the song "TV Guide?"

It’s a simple metaphor using titles of TV shows to talk about my life and socio-political issues. Its more entertaining than preachy. It’s all about TV shows, but there’s a point and a lot of wit expressed in it. Also, Mumia Abu Jamal is featured at the end of the song. So the song is actually called "TV Guide" (Mumia’s Theme).

How did the concept for this song develop? Each album you’ve had these incredible philosophical diatribes that have become a signature. "Nature of the Threat" and "Interview With a Vampire".

Really, I don’t plan to write those long ass songs. I usually just write to get the shit off my chest and then I rap it. However long it is… is however long it is, but people started making it this epic. I don’t plan on making epics, in fact I hadn’t intended one for this album because I wasn’t feeling motivated to do anything that I couldn’t in 16 to 24 bars. TV Guide just turned out how it did. The epic songs are more of the media’s perception or interpretation. I don’t plan I just do them.

So do you just write constantly, like during breakfast, while driving and so on?

I don’t write like that anymore. It’s funny, because there are so many other things in my life now. My kids, my mom, pay the bills, dealing fake niggas and other issues in my life. All bullshit aside, I’m out here paper chasing. I write in my mind or might put something in my 2way, but I just don’t write incessantly like I used to. Now I just write in the studio, not because it’s better or worse, but because it’s what I have to work with. I have a family at home and you can’t get much done when you are attending to the needs and wants of your children. So going to the studio is like going to the office.

So does this now go from just being art to being more of a business or a job? Is this rap game everything now?

I’ve had to find a balance. This music was my passion. Circumstances in the game- whether it was the label, the production company, radio, magazines, rap peer friends, rap peer enemies- had me hating this shit. I wanted to quit. But I said that I wanted give this up if it ever became that much of a job. So I left and moved to New York and was chilling. If I can’t have a love for what I'm doing then I won’t do it. But that’s why I called the album Van Gogh because I am on some artsy shit, though it’s still very street. I could have called my album "What’s Crackin" or "All The Bitches in My 64," but I had to represent who I am and my album is that. It’s me being me.

The Van Gogh title you’ve had for quite some time, almost since the first album. What made you stick with it?

I’ve had this title since Soul On Ice, but it wasn’t time for Van Gogh. The title for Soul On Ice was originally Foul Annals. Annals are books and that album was about a lot of fucked up shit in my life. Then I read Soul On Ice and I was like, "That’s it." When somebody from the Source wrote about me and misconstrued all my shit- that’s when I was like fuck this I’m Van Gogh, but it wasn’t time for that title. I chose Rasassination for the second album, because I wanted to be on some braggadocious shit. I was a sniper with these rhymes.

What kept your spirits up when things weren’t turning out for the best?

A few people that really had my back. Quite a few people that I can definitely say were looking out for me. People who gave me encouragement or shared their resources with me. Too many to name, but all are loved. Basically with my music, I had to make up my mind that I am the shit, and if people can’t get with that then it’s their loss. I can play the game, but it’s like I say on "Van Gogh"- "You can’t teach Algebra to first graders and you can’t school a hustler about the 16 crucified saviors." I can’t be mad if niggas want to hear about guns and lowriders, I like that, but we all need balance. So I’m just trying to be the total Black man, which includes about 51 percent nigga. That’s that Black experience in America. Shit, killers listen to gospel, eat barbecue and take out the trash.

BG
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