Ah, Ras Kass. He started off so well with his first solo records, the Golden State Warriors projects and all those other great features. Then came all the legal drama, and those promising albums that never saw the light of day.
All that seems to be in the past now though, with Rassy back making good music. Blasphemy sees his team up with Apollo Brown, a talented producer who’s released a steady run of quality material over the last few years, collaborating with Guilty Simpson, OC and others.
Unfortunately, Blasphemy is an album of two different halves: one good, the other a bit boring. The first half is the good one, with impressive beats from Brown, and some sharp observations from Ras, plus features from always reliable artists like Pharoahe Monch, Rakaa and Xzibit.
Then we get to the second half. The way most people listen to music these days means albums don’t tend to flow in a sequence like they used to. But some thought still needs to go into how tracks are ordered. With Blasphemy, all the good stuff has been put up front, with the lesser tracks dumped in the back.
There isn’t anything badly wrong with those lesser tracks, they just lack the same punch and urgency of the first few. Apollo’s beats also tend to sound the same after more than a handful of tracks, and the cross-over attempt Too Much of a Good Thing doesnt suit Ras’ style one bit.
Not a bad project overall then, but unlikely to be bothering the top spot come album of the year retrospectives in a couple of months time.
Blasphemy it out now on Mello Music Group.