Ras Kass - Soul On Ice Album Review

Okay. this is a review for what I think is one of the most criminally overlooked albums ever. Watch out for me reviewing a chicago hardcore punk rock. Isnt most good hardcore punk from Chicago? Anyways.

01 On Earth As It Is... 5 Stars
The album starts off with a deep, dark beat. There are some eerie sounds mixed with hard drums. Ras Kass drops a battle-type rap. The song is loaded with biblical and religious references and punchlines and metaphors:

"The hip-hop martyr who sacrificed and gave my life
But got "4Pac", so I'm livin the "Thug-Life" in the afterlife
Then I be walking through the pearly gates
with an infared scope ten millimeter heater
Cuz if my name ain't in the "Book of Life" I'm snuffing St. Peter
Drinking the blood of Jesus Christ and p*ssing holy water
no QUESTION who can come cleaner
M-P-C plus M-I-C equals holy B-I-B-L-E to me
Matrimony is getting head but I refuse to break bread
with Jezebels, my management already gets twenty percent
so f*ck tieing, go to Hell... I'd rather continue backsliding
You're not from the tribe of Judah, so why you lying?
Come watch the Zion, I'm signifying
the next sh*t to wreck sh*t and see the Exodus"

02 Anything Goes 5 Stars
Masterpiece. The beat uses low violins, vocal effects, a melodically deep bassline and a loud clap. Ras talks about how all the people do everything for money. He says "Capitalism is pimps and hoes / In ninety-six I 'spose anything goes"

03 Marinatin’ 5 Stars
This song is a west-coast party, Ras Kass-style. The beat is jazzy and G-Funk influenced track, with flutes, slowed down pianos some synth effects. Ras Kass drops some really cool wordplay, for example:
"She free like Mandela, she bringin a box of Philly pantellas
Acapellas, I game like Lou Pinella, made sure to tell her"
"Chips like the MGM casino"
"I get around like Dolby Pro Logic"
"So let the front door hit you where Ru Paul probably might"

04 Reelyishymn 5 Stars
The beat uses a heavily processed horn sample, a jazz bassline, a high pitched string, and violins. The chorus is old school R&B-influenced, while the lyrics are ridiculously good. This song is mostly summed up by one of my favorite quotes:

"Make a radio hit - headz criticize it;
Underground classic - nobody buys it:
So, rap is f*cked
And everything blowing up sounds redundant
But money talks and bullsh*t does 9 flat in the hundred"

I could quote the entire song, but here is a another writing sample for your reading pleasure, nhjic"

"My syntax hydroplanes as though my brain
Slides over liquidated grains of asphault caught cranial calluses
Over analysis leads to paralysis, mediocrity my nemesis
Try to f*ck every radical feminist I meet, call it engage and defeat
That's the reason why black men hide in the womb, homes
Cuz life is all taxes and tombstones
So as flesh and bone I zone my thoughts explode with rap shranel syntax;
That'll wax to the past, and present the future of Ras Kass lies in the
skull
Like the coronal suture
So I write truly fat sh*t for the core audience
But sometimes I wonder does it really exist?
Cuz true lyricists in hip-hop Joe Public be dissin
N*ggas don't relate
Elevate and its treated like elevator music
Cuz' n*ggas don't listen
But ridicle is the burden of genius
Have you ever seen this socioeconomic gullitine rip?
A n*gga's hopes and dreams
And now I'm lead to believe that life is all about CREAM
I'm living a life idealistically principle over profit
But realistically good intentions are microscopic to fat pockets
Exploitation is world's oldest occupation"

05 Nature of the Threat 5 Stars
Depending on who you ask, this is either the most incredible culmination of lyrcism in hip-hop or a racist piece of filth. What it can't be, however, is ignored. From a musical standpoint only, Ras comes with the basics and the haunting beat provides a great backdrop. An 8 minute epic.

06 Etc. 5 Stars
Another beat that isnt flashy, but it allows Ras to fucking murder the track again. The beat is funky, and it switches up a bit, and there is a lot of vocal samples. Check for example, the alliteration:

"Y'all all suffer the consequences
I dispense dope sentences without a prescription
prefixes asphyxiate b*tches who flips linguistics
Representin the West, relevant to relentless sentences
If renegade rebels resent this wicked syntax (then jack)
Revert to revolution Ras reverse, reverberates
Revolvin with written retalliation, rate repetitious
Reflex flex, regret n*ggaz 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
See we been burning idiots with lyrical syphillis
Since E.S.T. was Ackniculous, the nickle slick meticulous
ventriloquist when I throws my voice over the Western HemisFear
While my peers step over a Trail of Tears"

or how he just tears it up:
"So bulletproof fists is the only way I'm gone miss, but peep this
My mental's the bullet, my tongue's the finger that pull it
Check the method, soundtrack voodoo uh and bamboo like strapped
Come better you, oh, sorry, verbal dyslexia...
You better come strapped like bamboo and a voodoo soundtrack
And make sure not even one bar sounds wack (b*tch)"

07 Sonset 5 Stars
This album was recorded in the East Coast-West Coast thing, and this song is not an Eastcoast diss, but it's more of standing up for where he's from. Ras mocks New York's superiority complex. The background beat is simple, yet haunting. The lyrics...damn. Again, too much to quote, but here's a sample:

"Geographic prejudice against increments of incredulos legislature
Pschologically, I masturbate with the hands of fate
So bust nuts on Mother Nature coming on your landscape
[...]
If nuttin' else here's all you need to remember
LLA'Y LLA KCUF for all you backwards n*ggas
[...]
Dem gwan front like Rosa Parks
But them marks is broke wristed (b*tch)
You got superiority complex
Based on old statisitics, now listen
Respect due to the pioneers
But what you burrogh did in 83'
Is ancient history brah'
So why these n*ggas actin' like
Since they live in the state
That rap originates
They automatically, all-time greats?
It takes classic material to make phat shit
Not proof of New York residence and an accent
[...]
Fundamentally is the ability to smother suckas
So if rap was born to another then that makes me your motha's fucka"


08 Drama f/ Coolio 3 1/2 Stars
Coolio is a questionable guest appearence. However, Ras kills the shit. The beat is bouncy, and Ras Kass spits some truly memorable lines:

"Cause when I was lackin, b*tches made me want to roll over and die
So now I lie, cause b*tches are like flies {why?}
They attract to the best sh*t {oh!}
You gotta play Max Julian's role unless you plan on being celibate
Cause b*tches want the money clip and whatever d*ck that comes with it
{The b*tch} saw me in the Lex and didn't know it came from Avis
Now she's on the Tip like my name was John Davis"

Really, it takes a pop culture encyclopedia sometimes to catch all the metaphors and all the word play (i.e. Tip/John Davis.) However, this is not as good as the other songs.

09 The Evil That Men Do 5 Stars
Fuckin awesome. The beat uses thumping drums and a deep basslines as well as a great synth effect. Ras raps about the evil that corrupts men, and its an introspective masterpiece:

"In eighty-one I remember the night
I covered myself with baby powder, so my black ass could be light
Cause God is white, and Bo Derek is a ten
I hate my black skin, it's just a sin to be a n*gga"

The second verse is about how he himself does the evil. He talks about how he ends up having a child and going to prison, and concludes:

"I'm lookin at myself and seein every other n*gga I knew
It's the evil that men do"

10 If/Then 4 1/2 Stars
This beat is only midly amusing. However, it's main use of flutes fits the mood of the song, and Ras Kass absoultely murders the shit with a Canibus-style battle rap. There's too much to quote. Ras references everything from Wu-Tang to acryllic nails to Lamaze breathing techniques to Hershey's kisses. Incredible.

11 Miami Life 4 1/2 Stars
This is a pro-Miami song, talking about his life in Miami. The beat is simple enough, with synthesized flutes and vocals and a siren. Ras drops incredible amount of metaphors and similies, and here is a small sample:
"Walk these streets with more Heat than Alonzo Mourning"
"I'm on a roll like toilet tissue"
"I never been seen like the Loch Ness"

and so on.

12 Soul On Ice [Diamond D Remix] 5 Stars
This is the title track, remixed by the legendary Diamond D. The beat is great, using synth pianos, violins, and the like. Ras Kass raps in a "Public Enemy style" but of course in his style, more heavy on wordplay and metaphors and the like. Again, too much to quote. Here's a real short sample:

"Tiger Woods ain't even up to par in the game of survival
That's why I'm pissin' in y'all Cristal bottles
Drink Listerine brush my teeth with amphetamine
So I can sound fresh and say dope things in between"

13 Ordo Abchao (Order Out of Chaos) 5 Stars
The end track can be seen as the follow-up to "Nature of the Threat." The introduction to the song is a thumping and haunting drum beat, until a horn, piano keys, chimes, hard bass, and some background vocals, which provide the backdrop for the rest of the track. Ras raps mostly about the Illuminati and shit. For example:

"It only takes a trigger and 12.98 plus tax to potentially murder 50 n*ggas
So motherf*ckers better duck like Daffy
Cause nowadays the average n*gga think they Butch Cassidy
And the Sundance Kid, doin' bids with no remorse
It's almost methodical, education is false assimulation"

Also, some quotables: "Most of us n*ggas wanna be pimps but Uncle Sam really pimpin' them," but one of my favorite quotes ever:

"The planet revolves, supposedly, man evolves
But no promblem is solved, cause man is the cause"

Fucking classic.

Overview
The album is one of the most lyrically intense in history. The biggest complaint is that the beats can't match Ras Kass sonically. However, even tho some of the beats are a little pedestrian, they fit the overall theme of the song and complement Ras Kass. Whereas more flashy production mightve tried to compete for your attention, these beats provide a backdrop so that you focus your attention on the album's strongest point: lyricism.

Final rating: 5 Stars out of 5