June 23, 1998: Ras Kass releases “Rasassination”

[h2o_proof]

Remember the helicopter ride interview with Big Lez on RapCity?

Once Ghetto Fabulous didn't do what they thought it would, that was really the end of the Ras Kass push on a mainstream level.

Good album, though. Rassassination, H20Proof, It Is What It Is, Vampire, Conceited b*stard and The End were all great tracks.

Yo, came in here to say this. I remember being in college and we was all huddled around a 13" tv watching this. It was a two-parter too right? I just remember coming back the next day for part 2 of the interview.

 

[DredScott]

i dont know for sure...i think it was

No, it wasn't.

Van Gogh was his 3rd lp that was supposed to drop in Summer/Fall 2001 but got shelved by Priority, then he went back into the lab and reworked the album and it turned into the Goldyn Chyld lp, which also was shelved after the his DWI arrest and issues over the lead single. The o.g. version of the song, "Goldyn Chyld" was on Van Gogh, but the primo remix was for GC. I honestly never cared for either version of the track, once the novelty of primo and ras finally working together wore off, I realized that both have much better songs. The Seance (Original Version) is probably my fav. cut from the Van Gogh/GC era...

 

[THE 101]

Awkward ass album.

Some good tracks on there but it's a clusterfukk of Ras trying to appeal to a wider audience whilst also dropping more abstract tracks like Interview w/ a Vampire.

Half baked production and lazy rhymes....this was the beginning of the end for Ras.

Van Gogh was a little better but not by much.

 

[Poetical Poltergeist]

Rasassination is the second album by rapper Ras Kass. It was released in June 23, 1998 by PatchWerk. It peaked at #63 on Billboard 200 and #11 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.One charting single was released “Ghetto Fabulous” featuring Dr. Dre and Mack 10. (Source Wikipedia)








http://todayinhiphophistory.com/2015/06/23/june-23-1998-ras-kass-releases-rasassination/

I remember going to cd shop that morning to cop this. Was let down. There are good to great tracks sprinkled throughout the project thought. A lot of them forgettable.

That is what it is track I never liked.

 

[Dirty D]

Yo, came in here to say this. I remember being in college and we was all huddled around a 13" tv watching this. It was a two-parter too right? I just remember coming back the next day for part 2 of the interview.

I think you're right abt it being a 2-parter. I just remember it being a unique type of format for an interview, and Ras coming off like a star in the making. It's probably the high point of his career.

 

[oO J Smooth Oo]

Soul on ice is one of fav cds ever

Remain anonymous is one of ras dopests tracks btw

 

[Poetical Poltergeist]

Soul on ice is one of fav cds ever

Remain anonymous is one of ras dopests tracks btw

Coo story bruh, but what u think of Rasassaination though?

 

[NormanConnors]

Ras was still in prime form then. The real travesty is the Van Gogh debacle/fall out with Alchemists and not making those 2-3 tracks he got from him official.

I think that track Game Over was supposed to be on there also.

 

[Poetical Poltergeist]

Ras was still in prime form then. The real travesty is the Van Gogh debacle/fall out with Alchemists and not making those 2-3 tracks he got from him official.

I think that track Game Over was supposed to be on there also.

Ras displayed mad energy on Rasassination but he just didn't know what he wanted to be on that album. Settled for weak beats and concepts, recycled rhymes.

 

[Jimmy ValenTime]

i love rass

he a better more hood canibus

and he can write songs

(an i know he drop before canibus)

 

[Jayou Ayen]

Don't really care for a majority of the album, but Interview With A Vampire is .



39

 

[BlackMajik]

That track Interview with a a Vampire tho

 

[wizworld]

Album was a big disappointment, these two records are better than 85% of the album.
Take off the 5-6 trash joints, add these two and you have a respectable follow-up to Soul On Ice.

 

[wizworld]

I was disappointed as fukk with this lp.

aside from the title track, h2oproof, ghetto fabulous and interview with a vampire, I couldn't listen to this album. Some of the other cuts are just horrible attempts at radio/club play.

Music of the business with xzibit not making the album after it being on mixtapes for so long also pissed me off. I forget if oral sex was supposed to be on here but that joint was ill too.

I wish rassie realized that he was just a dope lyricist and made the ill tracks he was capable of instead of trying to blow up and try to be a west coast star which seemed to be way too much of a goal for him.

I think the problem was that he was a little too charismatic for the underground. I think that's what led people in the industry to believe he could blow up, they figured he just needed a strong cosign. But "Ghetto Fabulous" flopped and Priority abandoned him. I remember an interview with Money B,where he kinda said Ras BS party records were actually closer to his true personality than the real thoughtful stuff. That's unfortunate, because his commercial attempts are amongst the worst we have ever heard from a "lyricist".

 

[DredScott]

I think the problem was that he was a little too charismatic for the underground. I think that's what led people in the industry to believe he could blow up, they figured he just needed a strong cosign. But "Ghetto Fabulous" flopped and Priority abandoned him. I remember an interview with Money B,where he kinda said Ras BS party records were actually closer to his true personality than the real thoughtful stuff. That's unfortunate, because his commercial attempts are amongst the worst we have ever heard from a "lyricist".

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.