June 23, 1998: Ras Kass releases “Rasassination”

[surv2syn]

I bought the cd and was in heavy rotation for me.

 

[MurderToCassette]

The joint with Bad Azz and Easy Mo Bee still goes

 

[RasNas]

Very underrated

 

[Sean7]

The song with Twista All Or Nothing, Concieted b*stard and Interview With A Vampire along with Rassassination were songs I remember on this one, definitely was let down at first but it grew on me fast and I listened to it for a minute. It was not as good as the first one he dropped but a good album IMO.

 

[Consigliere]

I was heavy into all these acts back then and bought the cds and saw everybody but Ras Kass in concert.

Xzibit
Ras Kass
The Liqs
Peanut butter Wolf
Defari

West Coast was always right here.

 

[flatlinerz]

I remember when ghetto fabulous was on mtv raps all the time in 1998, I was always a ras kass fan, heavily slept on

 

[Peak]

It was garbage

 

[threattonature]

Ras always seemed like that "smart, waste of potential cat that doesn't give a fukk and does his own thing" that everyone knows, so I don't doubt his personality on his radio attempts being more true to himself that the nature of the threat type ish.

I've said it before and I felt this way back then too, but Ras to me was in the same vein as Big L and Jay for me back in 96-98. mind you this is before Jay blew up and became a star with Hard Knock Life but those three were in the same tier for me and all had that ill conceited, clever braggadocious style that they spit so well that you believed all the slick shyt they said and they were at least on wax, charismatic as hell. back then I never thought that any of them would become big rap stars, although Jay obviously as the most likely given his history and the way he was trying to gravitate towards the shiny suit era style that was making puffy and mase stars. Sadly L was never given that chance, but I don't think he woulda blew up like Jay, cause I think he woulda kept his shyt a little too street to pop like that. Ras was always a victim of being a rapper born on the wrong coast, dude needed to be in NY working with DITC, Primo, Pete Rock and them from the beginning. He always seemed to try to distance himself from the acclaim that the Soul On Ice Remix brought him and wanted to stay west coast and carson for life instead of embracing the obvious chemistry and how dope he sounded on gutter NY beats...shyt is a shame.

he didn't have to stay underground though either and he did deserve more than that but he coulda easily carved out his little lane like mos def did with the underground becoming more mainstream with rawkus branching out right around the time he was working on Van Gogh. it's just fukked up that xzibit had more success than him and they were in the same crew.

Great breakdown. I used to love west coast rap but those were always Ras' weakest tracks to me.

I loved this album I think in part because I heard it before Soul On Ice. I was heavy into lyrics and kept reading in The Source about how dope Ras is. Eventually picked the CD up and he was spitting like nobody I heard before on Rassassination. I wore that CD out for months. Soul On Ice was hard to track down but I was fiending for it since people said this album was a fall off. I still remember finding it at a random mall in a Sam Goody while on a school trip and saw what everybody was talking about in regards to it not being as good as Soul On Ice.

I still run Rassassination back on occasion and it's uneven as hell. When it's great it's great but there are some songs on there I could do without ever hearing again. Rassassination, Conceited b*stard, H2O Proof, Interview with a Vampire, All Or Nothin, I Ain't fukkin With You and The End were all fire to me.

As far as Ras he seems like he got that Napolean complex and just a bit of a fukkup. Between the DUIs, the Alchemist situation, saying he got kicked off the Up In Smoke tour, the record label beef, all within a couple years he just kept sinking his career. Even worse cause it seemed like Dre really believed in him and it seemed that relationship got fukked up.

 

[ThirdAct]

1. Endtro
2. Rasassination
3. Ghetto Fabolous
4. Conceited b*stard
5. H20Proof
6. It Is What It Is
7. Interview with a Vampire
8. All or Nuthin'
9. Grindin'
10. The Music of Business
11. Understandable Smooth
12. The End

This is my tracklist, better followup to SOI I think.