Van Gogh (Ras Kass album)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Van Gogh (album) (disambiguation).

This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article.
Please improve it or discuss changes on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.

Professional reviews
Van Gogh

Studio album by Ras Kass
Released	2001
Genre	Hip Hop
Length	77:46
Label	Priority Records
Altrap: 8/10
Ras Kass chronology
Rasassination (1998)	Van Gogh (2001)	Goldyn Chyld (2002)

Van Gogh was supposed to be the third Ras Kass album to be released in stores. However, due to the lack of promotion, a dilemma with producer Alchemist over a re-sold beat, and an early internet leak of the album, Priority Records decided to shelve the Van Gogh. Ras Kass' fans called the disc a big comeback from the rapper's sophomore effort, Rasassination. Songs like Hot Game, Goldyn Chyld, Kiss of Death (an Alchemist diss track), TV Guide, and N.B.A. gave the rapper a little hype with his fans, though it didn't create a big buzz like Priority Records wanted. On Van Gogh, Ras rapped a lot about the tension and frustration going between him and the record label. He believed Priority was paying too much attention to the other, much weaker rappers on its roster. What really proved this is that Ras Kass' first two albums were already out of print due bad decision-making with promotion by the label.

The album has two tracklistings that are currently floating around the internet. According to Ras Kass' official site, the 22 track version (also known as the "rare" version) was supposed to be the retail copy of the album while the 16 track version is only a pre-release. Most tracks are the same, but some songs are differently structured than their counterparts on the other version. For example, the track "Hot Game" on the Pre-Release is differently mastered and has a singing sample while the Retail version has rap samples from rappers such as Royce Da 5'9". Also, Kiss of Death on the retail has a different chorus and a slightly different beat than Kiss U.