convinced_ese
04-26-2007, 10:11 AM
It came out in an era (the mid-90's) when West Coast gangsta rap was on top of the industry. A lot of rappers were promoting criminal lifestyles, and that was the stuff that was hot and fans were used to hearing.
Well... Ras was really clever. Because he was far too intelligent to just do what everyone else was doing, and at the same time, he wasn't a self-righteous conscious rapper like a Talib Kweli type (nothing wrong with Talib, it's just that in the mid-90's rap climate on the West Coast you couldn't get away with puttin out a record like Reflection Eternal, which was a great record too, btw, although different time and place)...
Anyway, so somehow, Rass had to come up with a way to be West Coast and hardcore, and still at the same time take it to another level and express his great artistic intelligence....
So what did he make the cornerstone of the subject matter for his album?...
White Collar Crime!
Pretty clever idea, in my opinion. Not many rap records have done it. So it still came off hardcore like the other West Coast records at the time, and fans were hearing about the criminal lifestyle... however, it was all about white collar crime.
Even his single, "Miami Life" is all about government and police corruption involved in the Florida drug trade. Also, tracks like "Anything Goes" he says, Big Bank take little Bank, Anything Goes... talking about corruption the corruption and exploitation commited by the powerful and wealthy. "Order Out of Chaos" mentions the larger game plan that big bussiness and government have executed against black people to keep them confined and subjagated, with mentions of Freemasonry, the S&L scandels..
Then he offers personal examples of his own life where he has been the victim of such grand schemes mentioned above, on tracks like "Reelyshm" and "Evil That Men Do"... where he writes autobiographically after going to prison saying.. "I'm looking at myself and seeing every other nigga I knew/ It's the Evil That Men Do!"
Classic Album.
Well... Ras was really clever. Because he was far too intelligent to just do what everyone else was doing, and at the same time, he wasn't a self-righteous conscious rapper like a Talib Kweli type (nothing wrong with Talib, it's just that in the mid-90's rap climate on the West Coast you couldn't get away with puttin out a record like Reflection Eternal, which was a great record too, btw, although different time and place)...
Anyway, so somehow, Rass had to come up with a way to be West Coast and hardcore, and still at the same time take it to another level and express his great artistic intelligence....
So what did he make the cornerstone of the subject matter for his album?...
White Collar Crime!
Pretty clever idea, in my opinion. Not many rap records have done it. So it still came off hardcore like the other West Coast records at the time, and fans were hearing about the criminal lifestyle... however, it was all about white collar crime.
Even his single, "Miami Life" is all about government and police corruption involved in the Florida drug trade. Also, tracks like "Anything Goes" he says, Big Bank take little Bank, Anything Goes... talking about corruption the corruption and exploitation commited by the powerful and wealthy. "Order Out of Chaos" mentions the larger game plan that big bussiness and government have executed against black people to keep them confined and subjagated, with mentions of Freemasonry, the S&L scandels..
Then he offers personal examples of his own life where he has been the victim of such grand schemes mentioned above, on tracks like "Reelyshm" and "Evil That Men Do"... where he writes autobiographically after going to prison saying.. "I'm looking at myself and seeing every other nigga I knew/ It's the Evil That Men Do!"
Classic Album.