Ras Kass is no longer a fugitive from justice.
In the early morning hours of Saturday, May 24th, John Austin aka Ras Kass
was arrested and taken into custody by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department.
According to Ras’ good friend and MC protégé
Scipio, Ras Kass was arrested after the vehicle he was a passenger in was stopped
by the police.
"From my understanding, (the driver) was
driving kinda crazy and so they just got knocked like that," says Scipio.
The reckless driving proved fatal to Ras’ standing as a free man, as Scipio
notes, "you can’t do sh*t in Vegas, it was just the homie was drivin’ way
out. It’s crucial when you’re on the run from the law, any little thing as you
can clearly see can happen to f*ck up the whole thing."
In town to do a show, Ras is now awaiting extradition
back to Los Angeles were he will make his first court appearance sometime within
the next week.
Any additional charges or possible bond for the
legendary lyricist are currently not known.
According to Scipio, Ras Kass’ incarceration
will not slow the release of new material.
"We still gonna keep it movin’, everything
is gonna keep runnin’. You gon’ think it’s on some ‘Pac sh*t, ’cause we got
music, we gonna keep the n***a alive."
Currently Ras Kass has two new full-length albums
due for release, Ras Kass Presents…The Re-Up, a compilation style album
featuring Scipio and others due to be released this summer on Empire Musicwerks/BMG,
and, Catch Me If You Can, an all new solo release and DVD.
As for public perception of the Waterproof MC’s
stint as a fugitive, Scipio believes Ras has only done what he was forced to.
"I believe if anybody was put in this situation they would react similar."
Ras status as a fugitive may have come to an
end, but his status as a Priority Records recording artist remains unclear.
The label has not publicly released a statement
regarding any of Ras Kass actions over the past few months, and Scipio for one
believes they are directly responsible for all of this.
"Priority/Capitol didn’t wanna drop this
n***a’s sh*t, and if you’re tryin’ to hold somebody from eating, holdin’ a n***a
back from feeding his family, but he gonna do his time like a man and hold his
head,
but they wouldn’t let him get his paper straight before he had to turn himself
in. If you see somebody at your record label in this much anguish, if you’re
a humane person, why wouldn’t you let them go?"
