Ras Kass

Ras Kass (bourgeois John Austin) is an American rapper. John Austin was an avid reader in his youth. He finally gave himself the stage name Ras Kass, in reference to the Ethiopian title Ras and the civil name of the Emperor Yohannes IV. Under this pseudonym, he appeared as a b-boy and rapper at parties in California. First attention he got by some independent released singles. Later he was featured on the Posse Cut Wake Up Show Anthem '94 where artists like Nas and Lauryn Hill participated as well. On the label Priority Records in 1996 he released his debut album Soul on Ice. The following release Rasassination, published in 1998 was more successful, also because of the background music of well-known producers such as RZA or Dr. Dre. In the following years he released numerous of mixtapes and albums on his own, partly through alternative sales and financing channels such as kickstarter.com, bandcamp and indiegogo. Another album was released with Institutionalized, Volume 2 in 2008. Ras Kass deals with topics that deal with politics and partly lead to conspiracy theoretical approaches.