Ras Kass: Get Free Or Die Trying Pt. 2

AllHipHop: You been talking all this stuff about Priority Records, how they can’t market and promote hip-hop records, but Chingy’s platinum my man. RK: I can say two things: first of all, Priority Record’s has enormous luck, and basically, I know DTP Records, I knew everybody before they even signed when they were telling me […]

AllHipHop: You been talking all this stuff about

Priority Records, how they can’t market and promote hip-hop records, but Chingy’s

platinum my man.

RK: I can say two things: first of all, Priority

Record’s has enormous luck, and basically, I know DTP Records, I knew everybody

before they even signed when they were telling me that Priority wanted to sign

Chingy, now, I’m not gonna put no s### on nobody’s name, but first of all that’s

Ludacris’ artist that for the most part Ludacris and them took on the role and

broke themselves, that has very little to do with Priority promoting the record,

all they can do is suck d*ck and ride off of somebody else’s fame, they have

yet to break an artist still. Congratulations to Chingy, I wish him the best,

but to my understanding – I don’t want to put nobody else’s business out there

– they not all that happy. So once again it goes back to, what about Bad Azz,

what about Roscoe, when you’re not attached to a quadruple-platinum artist what

about you?

AllHipHop: Now, going back here a little bit,

this has been reported, is it true that they’re holding you to the time left

in your contract, which is now less than 20 days, until after you’re released

from prison?

RK: Nope, I have no knowledge of that because

they would have to serve me legally with something and they have…

AllHipHop: So basically, when you step out of

jail are you still technically under contract to them?

RK: Like I said, we setting a court date. First

of all, there’s some legal things that I don’t wanna talk about and give them

no heads-up, so I just can’t discuss it, but all I would say is we’ll have a

day in court to decide all that.

AllHipHop: So let’s say hypothetically that you

do win in the court proceeding, what then happens to the Goldyn Chyld album?

Would you work out an arrangement with them to put it out?

RK: No, I don’t want anything to do with Priority

Records. I’m pretty sure it would find itself to the bootleggers. It will probably

get out in some way, shape or form. I’m not really concerned about Goldyn Chyld,

I went out and I did this other album which was initially called Catch Me If

U Can, and I’m probably gonna call it Splinter Cell now. I want people to hear

(Goldyn Chyld), if it’s on raskass-central.com at some point, that’s fine.

AllHipHop: Let’s get some status updates on some

of your side projects, first what’s the current state of Golden State?

RK: I love them cats. I talk to Xzibit on a

regular basis. There’s always gonna be a Golden State in some way, shape or

form, I don’t know if the original members will always be there, who knows,

life take you where it takes you. I mean even Xzibit, he has his a different

group now, Strong Arm Steady, which is all the homies too, so it’s dope. Personally

I think Ras Kass should form a new trio with Eminem and Jay-Z.Well, Jay-Z’s

retired.

AllHipHop: That was my segue into the next question,

according to the Jan./Feb. ’04 issue of XXL you’re not even in their league.

You were awarded one of the top 5 "Negro Please" quotes for the year

for the following quote…

RK: I know the quote. I have a lot of respect

for XXL, it’s kind of like David and Goliath, pick on the little n*gga. I ain’t

sold the records of (Eminem and Jay-Z) so it’s really hard to have a pissing

contest when I’m pissing against a fire hose. I was unhappy with my article

(June ’03), and Kay Slay got on the radio for hours and completely sh*tted on

XXL. When I called in, I talked to Slay and I said, ‘I think it was kinda foul,

they kinda snitched me out,’ the sh*t I was unhappy about for all of three minutes

at the most. I never said you’re a fake Source, you’re this that and the third,

but it was kiss Kay Slay’ a**, and let’s sh*t on Ras Kass. In that same issue

is their most hated moments, ‘Kay Slay b*tching about his review.’ So you kiss

his a** and then sh*t on Ras Kass ’cause he really can’t fight back. Now I’m

a "Negro Please," but you printed five letters out of six (August

’03) saying the exact same thing I said.

AllHipHop: Do you think folks in this industry

respect your actions with regard to fighting your label even though it would

mean your incarceration?

RK: I appreciate XXL, allhiphop.com, anybody

that gave a f*ck, because I didn’t run out and say, ‘hey, guess what, I’m not

gonna turn myself in, and I’ma have a CD and I want all y’all to come,’ like

when Nas got to burn the books. Nas sold lots of records so people give a f*ck

if he wanna go burn some magazines. I didn’t expect nobody to give a f*ck that

I’m not gonna turn myself in, I did that for my family and for my kids. I appreciate

the fact that XXL gave me a platform to speak, I wish they would have been a

little more concise about what I said, and I had a grievance about that. I wanna

thank XXL, they still press they can hate on me, they just mad at me now, we

gonna make friends later anyway.

AllHipHop: Ok, enough of that, let’s move on

to something else here, what’s the word on the Horsemen, there’s a 9 track album

floating out there now, but it’s not the real album, it’s been listed as a pre-quel

to a full album according to Killah Priest. Do you know when or if a commercially

available Horsemen album will manifest itself?

RK: I think Kurupt’s negotiating a deal right

now, so I don’t wanna step on his toes, but I know he’s negotiating on our behalf

with a couple of labels.

AllHipHop: Are the Horsemen getting any compensation

for the sales of this pre-quel album?

RK: I don’t think so; I don’t think I am.

AllHipHop: Have you spoken to Canibus, Kurupt,

or Killah Priest since you’ve been incarcerated?

RK: Yes, Canibus wrote me, I talked to Kurupt

a couple of times, and I actually haven’t talked to Priest, I was supposed to

get his number from Kurupt, everybody’s doing good. Kurupt was just kind of

telling me what the plan was, they got enough stuff for the first album and

then I’ll be out by the time we would need to do anything for a second album

if that was the case.

AllHipHop: Can you give any hint without ruining

things if he’s looking towards a major or independent?

RK: I don’t know, he had told me a couple of

labels that he had sat down with, apparently majors.

AllHipHop: Will your Catch Me If U Can album

and DVD ever see the light of day? I think you mentioned that it’s gonna be

under a new title, so you wanna explain how that’s gonna make its way to the

public.

RK: Priority sent these letters to "cease

and desist," so even the people that did express interest (in distributing

it), nobody wants to deal with the headache and lawsuits and people telling

you you can’t put out what you just spent this money on. Very few people are

willing to take that risk, and they tend to be smaller companies. I don’t wanna

specify, but we’ll probably be finalizing a deal on it within the next twenty

days, and it’ll be a smaller company.

AllHipHop: Was anything already manufactured?

RK: No, nothing’s manufactured, all we got is

the masters and artwork.

AllHipHop: What happened with the Re-Up compilation

that was supposed to be released commercially last summer?

RK: It is, but Priority sent a letter to "cease

and desist." If you don’t see it in the store, you can go to the front

and they can order it, the record is out. It’s just Priority sent a letter to

"cease and desist," which…

AllHipHop: Did that stop BMG from distributing?

RK: Or really promoting and everything, it becomes

that headache. Nobody wants to deal with that sh*t.

AllHipHop: When you get out do you intend to

record under the Re-Up Entertainment logo?

RK: I wanna control my own destiny for once.

Me and Scipio are the two artists on Re-Up Entertainment.

AllHipHop: Now you just mentioned your protégé

and label-mate, Scipio, how do you feel about seeing Young Scip take the reigns?

RK: I’m hating on him right now, nah I’m just

kidding. (laughs) He’s not my protégé for one, he’s his own man,

he’s just a good cat that ain’t a snake, I try to keep good company around me,

good energy. I’m really happy man ’cause he got the talent, and he ain’t gotta

fall into the pitfalls that I fell into.

AllHipHop: Word is he’s getting some looks from

some big boys.

RK: Yeah man, Re-Up, that’s how it got to go

man!