Ras Kass is a 53 year old MC from Carson, California whose his full-length debut Soul on Ice under Priority Records celebrated its 30th anniversary at the beginning of the month. The father of both Ras & Taj Austin from Coast Contra would go on to drop 13 more studio LPs as well as 7 EPs & 8 mixtapes since, with the Mello Music Group-backed Blasphemy produced by Apollo Brown during my senior year of high school landing at my 2nd favorite in his discography. Coming off Leopard Eats Face distributed by Soulspazm Records only 8 months ago, The Waterproof MC’s not looking to slow down with his 8th extended play.
The title track kicks things off with a soulful boom bap intro produced by P.A. Dre talking about the authentic ones being ostracized whereas “Summer Jam” takes a more seductive route topically, wanting people to understand how beautiful this woman is. “Only You” goes for a crooning trap vibe instrumentally talking about more people needing to become themselves leading into “Bottle Service” featuring All Lyrical & Punchline brings it hardcore with the latter having the strongest guest verse of the 2.
“Autumn Colors” incorporates live drumming from none other than Daru Jones talking about the fact that seasons always change every 3 months & a fool remaining the same no matter what just before “Won’t Do” featuring G. Dep, Grafh & X-Raided finds all 4 lyricists uniting to deliver an onslaught of east coast/west coast penmanship over a sample of “Whoa!” by the late Black Rob & some hi-hats. “God Watching” finishes up the EP soulfully reiterating his take on the meaning of a bar during the 1st verse of “Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar where he said he’d beat Drake’s ass with the bible.
I had the honor of meeting Ras Kass in the spring of 2022 when we attended the Outlawz’ final show in Los Angeles preceding the untimely death of Young Noble last summer & although I’m adamant of him having the capability to make something on the caliber of Soul on Ice or Blasphemy in terms of enjoyability, a majority of Fallout’s production leaves me torn although I commend him for his technical proficiency & toning down the number of features compared to the amount Leopard Eats Face had.
Score: 6/10