“I just have to do what God puts in my heart and hopefully make the best decisions and God-willing, get the good results.” — Ras Kass
Ras Kass — the highly-influential legendary MC from Carson, California — is still blazing a path of greatness, twenty years after the release of his critically-acclaimed debut Soul On Ice.
Recently celebrating forty-three years of life, the career and creativity of Ras Kass continues to impress fans of hip-hop music, lyrics, history and culture. As the creator of back-t0-back highly influential albums — Soul On Ice in 1996 and Rasassination in 1998 — Kass has maintained an equally-impressive work ethic and prolific output while balancing the pro’s and perils of major label politics.
Easily one of the single-most talented MC’s of all-time, Ras Kass is currently in the midst of a three-album project rollout, beginning with the twenty-year reissue of Soul On Ice. His current project — Intellectual Property — dropped in September 2016 ahead of Soul On Ice 2, the sequel to his celebrated debut scheduled for release in late 2017.
While simultaneously enjoying the success of Intellectual Property and working on the details to Soul On Ice 2, Ras Kass took the time to speak about religion, politics, self-awareness and history —sharing thoughts inspired by lyrics from his original Soul On Ice.
RAS KASS
- From Carson, California
- Forty-three years old
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
- Soul On Ice (1996)
- Rasassination (1998)
- Intellectual Property (2016)
ON GROWING THROUGH TIME
There’s an irony to it. It’s bittersweet; it’s a lot. There’s definitely being appreciative for the journey and being thankful that my peers and other hip-hop heads — because we’re a community: some people write, some people are police officers, some people… whatever. We all enjoy this music. But that some people really feel like that. I tried to make a contribution and it’s good to be appreciated for when you try to make a contribution.
I’m blessed. I’m thankful for it.
I got juice freshly squeezed / words 100 percent Bombay / made from more concentration than Minute Maid / renegade rhyme ride ruckus non-fiction / me and my kin / slipping mickies and putting hickies on your chest / I never been seen like the Loch Ness monster / and now a word from our sponsor
— “Miami Vice”
ON KNOWLEDGE OF SELF
“To thine own self be true.” I could try to be Run DMC, but I’m not Run-DMC. I could try to be Ice Cube, but I’m not Ice Cube. I guess the most comfortable thing you could ever do is get comfortable in your own skin; that’s the realest thing you can ever really do. Self-actualization, self-realization about who you are and being cool with that.
Just to firmly be true even if society’s norms don’t necessarily agree with it.
There’s a Japanese proverb: “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.” Which basically means: conform or get ostracized. And I guess with hip-hop, there was a certain norm that they tried to perpetuate. They didn’t do that good of a job, but obviously they did a great job in the bigger scale.
I was just listening to Beastie Boys’ “Paul Revere” two days ago and it’s such a fucking interesting record — aside from the fact that the beat was tremendous. The beat was dope as fuck, the rhymes were dope as fuck. But they were being cowboys talking about meeting each other. And that’s pretty fucking cool. They took their own perspective and did their own thing; these kids from Long Island.
So we have people like Biz Markie and just so much variety of people being true to themselves. And I think — specifically to the West Coast — there was one thing that was very successful, and then companies wanted to perpetuate that. So I don’t necessarily feel like New York or the East Coast had the same pressure to do a specific version of rap as much as we did.
I’d rather be a dope MC / than a broke OG / I get manicures to keep my cuticles suitable / player, don’t hate me because I’m beautiful / I got a pocket full of C-notes and food stamps / just big bills and free meals, baby / so lamp
ON VARIETY OF SOUL ON ICE
I was just trying to be myself. My goal was the duality of man. I wanted to deal with my higher self, my lower self and talk about sometimes how I like my lower self; I like my vices. Whether some of that is kind of womanizing or hanging out with my homeboys trying to get some money and doing things that you probably shouldn’t do to get money. Just trying to reconcile and be honest about it.
I’m not a perfect person. And I thought a lot of times — especially in rap — there was this whole thing to be one-sided. Like, “I’m the positive rapper, so I have to tell you all these positive things.” Or, “I’m a gangsta rapper.” Or, “I sell dope.”
But it’s just not realistic about a human being.
For twelve records or an album every year, it wasn’t realistic. It’s who are you as a person. At least give me a who, what, when, why, how, where. Like, why? When did you start selling crack? Who are you? Instead of just this fantastic story about how you’re the greatest dope dealer ever but now you’re rapping about it. Because that doesn’t make sense.
So for me, that’s what I was trying to do. I was trying to cover who I was — the good, bad and ugly of that. I was happy with it. I felt like in retrospect, I was criticized for it; damn sure didn’t sell a lot. I don’t think the record company really knew what to do with it, but that was my choice as an artist and that was my goal: to be an artist.
I didn’t want to be a ‘rapper’, I wanted to express myself. So that was one of the prices to be paid potentially — it could alienate people.
For example, there was criticism of Rasassination as opposed to the reverse-criticism of Soul On Ice in that real-time period. Soul On Ice came out at least a year late; production styles had changed.
It wasn’t like the dirty, Wu-Tang-y type stuff — it was a little more crispier, Diamond D-type production. Beatnuts, A Tribe Called Quest — it was very sonic, just in that transition from like late ‘94 to early ‘96. The music style that was going to be acceptable kind of changed, so we missed our time.
But having the opportunity to put out a record in real-time which was Rasassination and the criticism was that it was “clean” and I was trying to do something and that I sold out. And for me, I’d have these interviews with people and say, “Look man, keep in mind that production styles change.” I would have to explain to people that if you take the music away, I pretty much tend to be myself.
So on Soul On Ice, there’s “Marinatin’ ” and “Drama” featuring Coolio, who would’ve been beyond Drake; he was the pop-est rap person we had. And we were talking about getting into girls’ panties and the homies smoking blunts — not me smoking blunts, them smoking blunts — but whatever.
You have to realize that I cover my gamut in my music no matter what.
I’m going to talk about the things that we do, whether it’s acceptable or cool or not. And yeah, I am a bit of a philosopher, so there was always that. I just think it was misunderstood. As much as I was trying to open myself up to be understood, people took parts and wanted to say, “You’re a positive rapper.” Other people would say — my friends would say — “I like when you do the street shit, like ‘Marinatin’ ’ — we need more of that.” And then the company obviously wants Dr. Dre or whatever.
For me, it was about all these things are what comprised me — the human body. We’re not all one thing — we’re mostly water, but we’re a whole bunch of other shit. So for me, I was trying to cover all that other shit.
Make a radio hit — heads criticize it / underground classic — nobody buys it / so rap is fucked / and everything blowing up sounds redundant
— “Reelishymn”
ON BEING UNAPPRECIATED
That’s why I say it was bittersweet. And there was some corporate black-listing and other things that went on in my career, but I think you take your sand and you do what you can. I didn’t have a Magic 8-Ball or anything where I knew the end-result of stuff. And it’s been a great journey thus far.
As an artist, as a human being, as an American — as a Black American, I listen to Soul On Ice now and so much of it rings true. I listen to “The Music of Business”, I listen to Rasassination and the substance is there; the songs actually hold up because of the message. As somebody who wanted to express myself, that brings me some peace. I’m like, “Hey man, at least you delved into yourself and you didn’t just do what was easy or what everybody would’ve liked.”
There’s a million party records — there’s nothing wrong with a party record — but at some point, there has to be some substance. Tell me something somewhere.
I feel like it holds up with the substance. It’s better late than never. I’d rather somebody appreciate it later on. Somebody posted “Nature of the Threat” six or seven years ago and literally it created a new debate; a new form of debate every day. Then there’s some new person that’s never heard of Ras Kass, never heard that song. And it’s really meant to spark the conversation, so it constantly sparks that conversation. Black, White, yellow, green, male, female where people say, “Aw man, I disagree.” Well, prove it wrong. Or, “Man, I did some research and found out a lot of this is accurate and changed my perception.”
Then I meet those people — and literally from London to Los Angeles — saying, “Oh, I’m a teacher now; you changed my perception. I teach university, I teach high school. We utilize this record in my curriculum because it means something. You did the research.” For me, that’s a blessing.
A lot of artists are not going to be able to have that kind of impact — either it wasn’t in them or they chose not to deal with things that are a little more important than how many pair of Red Bottoms or cars they got or how much money they threw out in the strip club.
Y’all all suffer the consequences / I dispense dope sentences without a prescription / prefixes asphyxiate bitches who flips linguistics / representing the West / relevant to relentless sentences / if renegade rebels resent this wicked syntax / then jack / revert to revolution / Ras reverse / reverberates / revolving with written retaliation / rate repetitious / reflex flex / regret niggas regress to less than recoup / when recording I wreck records / reflect stupid / it’s so much more than just another rap and sample / ‘cause I model more styles than Naomi Campbell
— “Etc.”
ON STATE OF DISENFRANCHISED AMERICA
I would definitely say it’s disconcerting. You’ve got to remember: there have been good people and bad people since the beginning of time. There were White people that were helping and saying, “We don’t need slavery; it’s wrong.” There were some people saying, “Fuck that — that’s what we want. We want it and they’re not humans.” And then what you see now with the police actually having something going on within the infrastructure where they tend not to be penalized when they’re shooting unarmed people.
Basically, the easiest way to say it is: you’re still a Nazi if you sympathize.
If you keep overlooking it, if you pay your taxes and these are the things that are done — then you kind of say that it’s OK. Doing nothing is the same as helping. Unfortunately we have a country that a lot of people would rather do the ostrich thing and put their head back in the sand. It’s not affecting them, so they don’t have to care as much or they could say, “Well, maybe it’s isolated. Maybe that guy did something that we didn’t see.” But if it were their child…
We don’t have a compassionate country — we have a country that people only care once it affects them. And if it’s something that’s perpetuated towards people of color, then odds are that sometimes White people don’t see it. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen — it just means that they don’t see it and unfortunately they’re not compassionate enough to say, “Look, this is enough evidence. There’s a historical pattern going on here; how do we fight with you?” Then there are some that do see it, and they come and stand and fight with us.
We’re all people, we’re all God’s children and we’re all part of the Human family anyway.
Give me 50,000 Black angry role models / take me to D.C. / I’ll throw the first fucking bottle / ‘cause I don’t give a fuck about a menial existence / and I don’t give a fuck about nonviolent resistance / civil rights will not suffice / in the name of Jesus Christ / they got my Soul On Ice
— “Soul On Ice”
ON BECOMING A WRITER
I used the mediums that I was most comfortable in. I used to draw, I used to breakdance and then it transitioned into writing raps. I’d always felt like I was going to be a philosopher; maybe a history teacher. Not that they make a lot of money, but I always felt that way. It was something my Mom noticed in me and that she liked to see.
Just a few years ago, my Mom was unhappy with me and said, “I thought you were going to be a philosopher?” And I was like, “Well, if you really think about it, at the end of the day I kind of am. This is just my medium: I use the music to pose these questions.”
“Interview With A Vampire” or “TV Guide” or “How To Kill God” — just whatever. I was always just doing these kind of philosophical… I tried to keep them fact-based, but then it’d go into questions. A lot of times, I try to do more questions than answers — because I don’t have all the answers.
Writing was my format at the time; it tends to be my format today. That may change.
Banksy does it his way; he paints it. Some people go out and physically… The people in South Dakota… That lady in New York: they hit her with a concussion grenade — she almost lost her arm. She’s out there really doing the hard work. It takes all kinds, so I respect everybody on whatever level they are that tries to put out some truth and some love. It ain’t got to be all mad and angry — just calling a spade a spade is integral in a society; to say, “That’s not cool.”
I think what we saw with the election was a lot of people that became so disgusted with the system, but they’d still allow a negative side of our society to end up getting in a powerful position.
I don’t ‘rock the vote’, but… If my family was disenfranchised in the ‘60’s just for trying to vote — my mother and my grandmother were water-hosed just to stop them from trying to vote — if they do voter suppression, then there’s something to it.
If they — the bad guys — don’t want us to do it, then we probably should do it.
That’s my logic about voting. It’s like look: people suffered for it, let alone just women, period, in the ‘20’s. So there’s something to it. It may be kind of rigged, but it ain’t completely rigged, so go do that part. It takes all of an hour or two to just do it.
I watched a lot of people not do it, and then they looked up and already are like, “I want to leave.” Well, fuck — you don’t have the money of so-and-so, so you’re kind of stuck here with me. Doing nothing allows people who did something to win. The people that did something just kind of wanted to do something that was a lot meaner-spirited than the people that didn’t want to do anything.
Because nowadays the average nigga think they Butch Cassidy / and the Sundance Kid / doing bids with no remorse / it’s almost methodical / education is false assimilation / building prisons is more economical / so you’re niggas in gang modules
ON CREATIVE OUTLET FOR YOUTH
It’s super-important. I always tell people that “Nature of the Threat” — I wrote it for myself; it’s an extremely selfish song. But I did the footwork; I went to J.C. I didn’t go off to college, because I was already doing the music stuff and I felt like I really wanted to do it.
I went to a community college and I took the classes that would help me get a better understanding. Physical Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Ancient History, World History, Black History, American History, whatever — just history. I wanted to soak it in. And studying outside of that, they all corroborated each other. There’s very little that I learned in one book that wasn’t corroborated in the other books — no matter who was writing them. So I found that very interesting.
Encyclopedias; there’s Black people that go study and they go do it; archeologists, et cetera. Everybody’s shit was pretty much… It’s just that the basic History book was only going to give you a date and maybe not even put the right picture in front of this person’s place. It would be crazy like, “This is the latest picture of Beethoven. This is the picture they painted after he died.” They would Europeanize his face when he was actually half-Black; that’s the things they don’t give you.
If you started looking at the matrix, you could kind of see the numbers floating around.
For me, I’m thankful for this ability but I was a visual artist; I could draw. And I could draw some ill stuff — my Mom still has all that. And then dancing was a great expression. I think being able to put it in a music-form was a better way for me to share it. I wanted to share it, so that’s why I feel really cool about that. At the end of the day, it’s therapy for me — just like drawing was for me as a kid. I just found a different kind of therapy where it’s kind of hard to… I don’t think I’m as brilliant as Banksy. I don’t think I would’ve drawn the things he drew — because that’s him — that make these incredible points.
For me, putting these words together: I can more specifically get my feeling across or my point of view across. Being able to do it on beats was even cooler, because I became a hip-hop head and a fan and it’s partly the music that led me to question things. Listening to KRS-One’s “You Must Learn” and Rakim and all those people before me.
Hearing those songs finally gave me a theme music for being a young Black male in America. That was the music that spoke to me initially until it became my canvas for me to speak back to everybody else.
Racism is the system of racial subjugation against non-Whites / in every areas of human relation / entertainment, education, labor, politics / law, religion, sex, war and economics / see, Blacks were 3/5ths of a man with tax purposes intended / you think you’re Afro-American? / you’re a 14th Amendment / and a good nigga / Jews don’t salute the fucking swastika
ON RELIGION
At the end of the day if there’s a Judgment, I’m going to be responsible for me. But I felt like as I studied and did the history of religion, they tended to be tainted and manipulated where they became about control. I grew up Catholic and was taught to be Christian. Then I studied Judaism and Islam — even Agnosticism, whatever.
I believe in God.
I think the biggest thing anyone that believes in God will have to go through is: why do You let all this happen? That’s always my biggest question. That’s the thing that can make you not believe in God — if there’s a God, why does He allow this shit to happen?
For somebody to go walk into a church and say, “God told me to shoot all you Black people.” And then he gets treated nice by the government… It’s like: God, where are You?
For somebody to get on a stage that’s supposed to represent all of us and say, “All of one race — Mexicans — are rapists.” And he wins and his whole crew wins and their ticket is parading… in 2016. It’s like we’re on the wrong side of history. And as somebody that believes in God, you’re like, “What is happening here, God? Is that love?” They don’t repeat a word they say Jesus said. “Love thy neighbor” et cetera. This is hate, hate, hate; build a wall; kill Black people. It’s crazy; it’s upside-down.
If we’re lucky, we get a good ninety years — if we’re lucky, with health and whatever. Then we’re dead; you don’t see the bigger plan. I guess all I can do is do my part and hope that the plan unfolds and that it gets better than this. When it comes to spirituality, that’s a personal plight that I go through. But I’m not religious.
I was just writing this thing recently, and I was looking at the history of Christianity in America and how it became a guise. Those were the same people that put on the Klan robes and then lynched and murdered and blew up churches and killed people. So I have to separate them from Jesus Christ or from God or whatever. Because they’re not God’s people; they’re not doing God’s work.
The thing that other people try to say about Islam: that’s not what God wants and Islam is — some people doing some extreme shit. Christians are just as extreme in their doings. They’re terrorizing other Americans; they do in this country.
But nobody wants to look in the mirror and call a spade a spade.
Those people: I won’t let them fuck the brand up because they’re evil. I’m sure there’s great Christians and great Muslims; I choose not to step into it mainly because religion is tradition. Most of them have so much blood on their hands that I don’t want to step into their traditions anymore.
Most of it perpetuates White supremacy — in 2016. I’m a History major that knows that Northeast Africa — there weren’t even Arabs there. The religions are stolen from North Africa, and they won’t even show love to their brothers that potentially have the blood of the Hebrews in them; it’s become racist.
Even here: “We want our country back.” And that’s crazy when you see what they’re doing to Native Americans. Like, how could you get up there and say that? These people are saying, “Don’t poison the little bit of land that you wrote a treaty to after you decimated our people. Just respect the treaty; be a man of your word.” Just that — to understand that these people have no love.
They’ve tarnished those brands: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Those brands have been tarnished incredibly. And not just in the past one hundred years; now we’re talking about the past one thousand years.
I ain’t never seen an angel / virgin bitches with halos / but my secular metaphysical theology is fatal / because me with a mic cable is a religious experience in itself / I got a message from God / He said, ‘Don’t even try to fuck with me’ / suckers reluctantly carried the cross and uppercuts in Nazareth / I’m hazardous / I speak to the heads and raise the dead like Lazarus
ON TUPAC
He always treated me cool as fuck. Obviously I’m a big fan. Ironically when he was alive, the girls would say, “You remind me of Tupac.” I’d have to say, “I’m not Tupac; I’m Ras Kass. I look like my mother and father. We’re just kindred spirits.”
There was a major producer that ended up telling another artist about me — and he didn’t say it in a flattering way, it was right after ‘Pac died — and he said I’m just like Tupac; I’m a time bomb waiting to explode. I remember my response was, “I’m not Tupac. I’m my mother and my father. At least you compared me to a real nigga instead of you cowards that talk all this gang shit and then sit around with your police officers.” It just brought to mind that I was getting some negative comparisons to Tupac, because that was some way to negate me.
I never tried to be Tupac — I just learned to be myself.
But definitely kindred and being Pan-African. I’ve analyzed Tupac while he was alive and I’m sure lots of people could look at my career and my decision-making and say, “Yo, you should’ve did this and should’ve did that.” And I can look back — hindsight is 20/20.
I definitely look at him as an amazing, charismatic leader that I don’t think ever got a chance to really express his full message.
And it’s so hard just to get into public view where you can really explain your message. So kudos to him — for twenty years, more than half my life I’ve been doing this shit now, and I haven’t been able to get people to see what my message is. Which I personally feel is a better message than what Kanye has to tell you or — no disrespect — Drake or whoever. I think I have a better message and more substance. But I happened to tap into that. The people that do — I can give them that credit.
I think sometimes people do things that are against their spirit or not healthy. If that’s how they get the win, then it’s not how I want to win. I don’t want to do things that compromise who I am — sell my soul, sell my whatever. Some people I feel may have done those things to have gotten into their power positions; that’s not the route for me.
I just have to do what God puts in my heart and hopefully make the best decisions and God-willing, get the good results.
But ‘Pac — when he was in prison, he wrote out his perfect album. Wendy Day — who owns Rap Coalition — she helped so many of us. UGK, Eminem, Ca$h Money, the LOX, David Banner. Me and David Banner slept on her couch in New York early on in our careers when things went shitty. Just a great woman.
I said all that to say this: ‘Pac would write her letters; one letter he wrote was his perfect album. And the blessing was that he had me on there: something like Ras Kass with Easy Mo Bee.
When I did the songs with Easy Mo Bee on Rasassination — “Grindin’ ” and “The End”, that was something I wanted to do. He was already dead by then, but just to show him that loud and clear, I heard you, appreciate you and do my little part.
I definitely feel like I have more substance and things to say than some of the other people out. Some people got on because of the black hole left by Biggie and ‘Pac dying that I don’t think necessarily should’ve gotten that spot — but they got that spot. Whether that was the labels saying, “Well, this is dumbed-down version; we’re going to use this. We don’t want what Tupac was talking about; we don’t want that kind of substance.”
You can look how hip-hop music, for the most part, was dumbed-down on purpose. I don’t think that’s accidental.
I don’t think a lot of substance music was allowed to be heard. The few people: the Immortal Technique’s that do it and find ways to get masses to hear them — and he’s a brilliant dude. Talib Kweli Greene finds his way; Mos finds his way. Sick Jacken finds his way to speak; Vinnie Paz drops science. There’s people talking; sometimes it seems a lot harder for us to get heard than some dude talking about how much money he threw out in the strip club.
The cool thing is that there’s always going to be room for a couple, and so out of the lyrical lyricist people, I think J. Cole and Kendrick — they have that position right now where at least they have substance. They’re talking about shit and they can rhyme good. So it’s always that motivation seeing somebody at least being heard.
I’m looking at myself and seeing every other nigga I knew / it’s the evil that men do
ON WU-TANG CLAN
RZA has always been like a big brother to me. I’m younger than him and I would’ve been younger than ‘Pac if he was still alive. But RZA: he really would take me under his wings, support me. You got to remember that when RZA jumped on my album, he didn’t produce that song; Easy Mo Bee did “The End”. This is the time when everybody in Wu-Tang — nobody rapped on anything that wasn’t RZA-produced. So that’s just how much he took a liking to me: the fact that he would rap on something that he didn’t produce, which was amazing for me.
He put me on a Wu-Tang album: he put me on the Bobby Digital In Stereo album (“Handwriting On The Wall”). And I wasn’t Wu-Tang. I wasn’t Sunz of Man — I wasn’t nothing; I was just Rassy Kassy. Even to this day, he’s always like big brother to me. There’s more than RZA, but specifically with RZA: historically he always fucked with me, believed in me.
Ice-T’s the same kind of person like that. Ice-T and RZA — they believed in me. They’d say, “You got talent, you got integrity and your path is a little different than everybody else’s.” And they supported that. I will always be grateful and thankful especially to those two people. They just always had my back.
Anything you can do, I heard it done before / better / but I can do you in 36 positions / enter you like the Wu-Tang debut / now who remains true to the game? / damn shame it wasn’t you / fools lay claim to fly rhymes / but I terrorize airlines
— “If/Then”
ON “GOLDYN CHYLD” TRACK
Preem knew me before I had a record deal. So Premier and Guru — which is why I put the reissue of Soul On Ice out with that audio. Guru knew me before, because Wino my big homie that produced all of Coolio’s stuff while I was in juvenile hall just being a total bad kid — but I was rapping. So when we would go to New York and they would bring me along, I knew Premier then.
A lot of people: Al B., Treach — everybody knew each other. It was a lot smaller rap community and certain people fucked with each other. Once I got a record deal, I asked Preem for Soul On Ice like, “Please. I really want to get a Preem record.” And Preem was super, super busy. I don’t think I even had the budget with Soul On Ice; I think the budget was shot. So I just couldn’t really go for it.
Rasassination had the budget; I’m like, “Preem!” He was busy. And then the third time around was when… then the album basically didn’t even come out. And that was really the fourth time, because there was Van Gogh and then Goldyn Chyld. I’d asked him during the Van Gogh time and things just didn’t work out right. And then we finally got it together.
It was dope. To be in D&D: just the epic-ness of that studio session for me. I was in the place where Nas did Illmatic; Showbiz and A.G., O.C., Biggie’s “Unbelievable”. Like, I’m at D&D with the legendary… This was the first time I got really one-on-one kick it with Preem. I’d done stuff; I’d be in the studio with M.O.P. and Preem working on shit. I would be there, but I didn’t have a chance for me to be the artist working with Premier.
So for me, it was a lot of pressure.
He told me about how Biggie wrote “Kick In The Door” and basically how the only two people that ever did a perfect one-take verse was Biggie and Nas — I think it was “NY State of Mind”. He said Nas went in there, checked the mic and gunned it. So for me, the pressure was on for that, because I felt like I was one of the greatest MC’s with one of the greatest producers that had been around all the greatest MC’s — I have to prove I deserved to be here.
It was cool that I already knew Preem, but like I said, I would be the kid walking in drinking and whatever; just trying to get a chick and go to the club. Because it wasn’t my work time — I was just there supporting other people. Guru or M.O.P. or Freddie Foxxx or whatever — it wasn’t my song.
I don’t know if the energy was really different. For me, I definitely went in there with something to prove.
I did a perfect first take. So up until then, I was the only person from the West Coast to ever do a perfect verse. I did a perfect first verse; up until then it was only Biggie, Nas and Ras Kass that did a perfect take with DJ Premier. I nailed that.
It was also just an interesting day, because Nas dropped “Ether” that day. So then Nas walked in because he had a session next door. And then it was literally just DJ Premier, Ras Kass and Nas talking about “Ether”. That was interesting.
And then, I finished the record and then I went out that night and I saw Jay Z at the club. We all were sitting next to each other watching “Ether” get played in the club. So I just saw this very interesting one-day in hip-hop.
I call it “bardom”. On the new album Intellectual Property I have a song called “BARdom”. It’s these hip-hop moments that’ll never happen again. They happened and if you weren’t there, you weren’t there. It was just one of them crazy days where I wasn’t even a fly on the wall — I happened to be working on my own little masterpiece with DJ Premier. It’s the Goldyn State California and I’m the Goldyn Chyld, airing it out and I did the perfect verse and then Nas walked in.
It was an amazing day for me, and hopefully that energy did translate into what people heard.
I definitely wish my company would’ve done right. We were supposed to shoot the “Goldyn Chyld” video and I had so much more great stuff; another Dr. Dre record, I had a Hi-Tek record which was crazy. I had a Kanye record that was dope. I feel like the label made a lot of poor decisions. They just didn’t have the right vision for me, and they kind of ruined an amazing album. The Goldyn Chyld album was amazing.
I went to prison and Paul Rosenberg — super-cool, Eminem’s manager — took the time and would write me and just say, “Yo, I’m listening to the Goldyn Chyld album and this is the best hip-hop album of the past four or five years.” It was a great album; it was an amazing album. We put one-hundred and ten percent into it. The theme song was obviously the Premier record but there was just so much more dope stuff on there.
That part became heartbreaking: making really amazing stuff that this company didn’t really get. Either they were unable or unwilling to do right by the music, and I’d given them what I felt was the epitome of 2001 or 2002 of the dopest album, period. And it was for Paul Rosenberg, who first of all didn’t have to pick up a pen and write me while I was in prison.
So the fact that he would pick up a pen and write me to tell me that was more encouragement that I was on the right path and making dope music; I just wish my company would’ve understood that.
I wasn’t born rich, and I don’t know a Saudi prince. I’m totally interested in meeting a Saudi prince so we can invest. Because it’s still a business: Premier needs to get paid, the studio needs to get paid. You have to make the vinyl and shoot the video and do the press and the promo and all that. I like how we do it now: I’m independent and so it comes directly out of my pocket. The budget is a lot smaller, but it’s like the pro’s and con’s of having a major label. The pro was that we got to get that far; the sad part is they lost the vision and fucked everything up.
The pro of being indie is I can do whatever I want when I want to, but things still cost and if we don’t have $15,000 in the budget for something, it’s just not going to happen. The goal is the get to Tech N9ne: I’d love to be where Tech N9ne’s at where he moves like a major but he’s indie and it’s just him and his partner. They’re making the music they want to make and they don’t have to worry about radio; they’ve gotten their fan base and they’ve gotten their people to pay attention.
That’s the goal. I think that for any artist: you want to be heard.
I’m not just making this shit just for nobody to listen. I want people to hear it, I want my peers to hear it. I want that kid in Ireland who’s a head to hear it. I want to go rock in Ireland. I want the community of it.
It’s just a journey; hopefully we’ll figure it all out.
Hop on the Red Eye to NYC, though / D&D linked with Primo
— “Goldyn Chyld” (off Goldyn Chyld album)
THANK YOU
The new album is Intellectual Property, which is one-half of Soul On Ice 2; the next half will come out in late 2017. People can go to iTunes and check it out. And we re-issued the vinyl of Soul On Ice. The Intro and Outro are the original ones that the label said that time didn’t permit on the vinyl and the CD, so we had to cut them off. That’s how the album should’ve been with the “Eisodus” and the “Exodus”, and that’s actually Eldridge Cleaver talking. And it rings so true today — that Intro and Outro.
I wanted people to know: that’s not something we just made yesterday to put on there; that was from twenty-one years ago. I was lucky to find the DAT that had it on there and was like, “Oh shit! This is how the album was supposed to start!” So now you have that part of it.
I love the thing with Guru and that dude that said, “Where’s Tupac at?” — little did he know Biggie was going to die in like a month. Just showing that journey: I had to fight as a West Coast person, as a hip-hop head but that the community came together and we rocked and Guru was there to support me.
That’s another “bardom” day; that’ll never happen again.
Written By: Matteo Urella / January 2017
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