Ras Kass Loses Legal Battle With Capitol

We won't fill you in on the details, cause Ras says it all. This is an open letter to Capitol from Ras Kass:

As a corporation, EMI/Capitol Records has a financial obligation to its shareholders to make sure that its stock goes up each quarter, but at some point isnt there some ethical obligation to its employees (artists) to be humane and show some degree of moral turpitude? Furthermore, cant these two ideals coexist, especially in my case? It seems to me and many others that since the year 2000 Capitol is either unable or unwilling to offer me an opportunity to (1) release and market my music and (2) thereby allow me to generate income for myself and the company. So the logical and fiscal thing to do would be to allow a third party capable of successfully translating my talent into profit, do just that. Instead Ive been foiled in every attempt to either work within the confines of Capitol; when Ive tried to find any amicable way of bringing in any interested third party Ive been thwarted by egomaniacal executives who refuse to be the least bit reasonable in my efforts to work out a solution for all parties involved. For six years EMI/Capitol has enforced a contract that they have breached time after time, paying attorneys thousand of dollars to bind me to a record deal that they themselves refuse to honor. I ask you, how is not allowing me to generate ANY income financially viable for their shareholders? How is not allowing me to work within or outside the company for six years morally justifiable? Now, after an entire decade, one third of my life, watching this labels entire artists roster change at least five times over, I simply would like to ask why? Why are you doing this to me?

Ive been criticized for, and accused of many things, but my professional work ethic has never been called into question. Since the day I signed to Priority Records, Ive worked diligently to the best of my ability, often with limited resources to uphold my end of our recording agreement and successfully delivered two albums in 1996 and 1998, even going so far, as to move back to Los Angeles in 2000 to jumpstart my third album respectively titled Van Gogh. Unfortunately for me these facts have been overlooked when in 2001 I was set to release Van Gogh amid the chaotic Capitol/Priority merger, and Wendy Goldstein was given the VP position. In a meeting with Wendy, my attorney, and myself during Nov. 2000 one week before my album was set to be released without proper marketing (due to internal fears resulting from the impending downsizing). With all parties afore mentioned knowing that through no fault of my own the album was doomed to underachieve, Wendy persuaded me to record a few more songs and give Capitol enough time to properly promote this project that would later be known as Goldyn Chyld. Apologies were made as well as a verbal agreement, with my attorney present, as to who would bear the brunt of the financial responsibility due to the drawn out recording process and mismanagement (1999-2002) of the Van Gogh project - Capital would rightfully incur those costs. So in good faith I began recording a few new songs. While recording, new ads were placed in XXL and The Source magazines that read like obituaries:

REST IN PEACE 1999-2002
Van gogh of priority records, age 3,
died Tuesday, January 1st 2002, of complications
from bootlegging, corporate drama & corporate bullshit

An admission of responsibility if there ever was one. The Goldyn Chyld master was accepted but not surprisingly Capitol and Wendy reneged on their verbal agreement. I would be held wholly accountable for the mismanagement of my project (Van Gogh). Later that year 2002 I would learn that Andy Slater president of capital decided he was not releasing Goldyn Chyld because Dr. Dre refused to allow capital to release the song he produced for me entitled Whoop as the first single. The problem was there had already been a first single released. Goldyn Chylds title song produced by DJ Premier had already been shipped as promotional vinyl and CDs to college/mixshow radio and it had always been agreed upon as the lead street single. The next single called See What I See was for urban radio and the first video, and the plan had always been for Whoop to be the crossover record to propel my album post-release. None the less, Capitol tried to coerce Dr. Dre, failed, and penalized me. I would be left in limbo, go to jail for a year, expected to owe Capitol for the two mismanaged albums and hope that a year from then I would be given a chance to record a third album even after I had already had the rug pulled out from under my feet twice. Timeline-wise this puts us at late 2002, when I saw no other option but to sue for breech of contract in hopes that it would bring attention from parent company EMI to how mismanaged my situation was, expecting they would resolve it fairly. Didnt happen, after I sued Capitol in California I was not only served with a counter-suit from Capitol in Hollywood but also sued in NYC by EMI. Lawsuits cost generous sums of money and since it wasnt financially feasible for me, I was unable to answer the New York case. In retrospect if I couldve come up with another $20,000 logic prevails that EMI would have sued me in another state too, specifically to force me to spread myself thin, knowing I didnt have that kind of capital to keep expending especially since I technically hadnt worked in six years. Basically EMI won a default judgement meaning a no-show on a case that is the complete opposite allegation of the Capital lawsuit. Capital claimed I never turned in an album, while EMI registered 30+ songs in one day to ASCAP and alleged that from 2000-2003 I committed copyright infringement. They were even petty enough to sue regional mixtape DJs who put Ras Kass freestyles on their tapes. Mind you, these were songs they neither wanted to use nor were the majority ever paid for including studio time. Also, it is normal music industry practice to release unused, or exclusive songs to the internet and mixtape djs to promote the album and create a buzz. Still, after four years that precedent allowed the California legal system to grant a motion of dismissal, which brings me to this.

As an employee of any company you get paid every two weeks, whereas an artist you only get paid when you put out an album. So why wouldnt I want to release a project? The only person I would be hurting is myself, right? Further proving my point, between Sept. 05 and Sept. 06, a twelve-month period, I recorded three full length mixed CDs worth of material. Compare two albums in ten years with capital to 3 potential albums in one-year independently. I repeat - I just want to work.

In closing I would like to say that what has been done to me is a travesty. There are many people worldwide, including former and present Priority/Capitol employees who consider me one of the most prolific urban poets of our time and who believe that my ordeal is a disservice to Hip Hop as a collective. As of today, because of the courts ruling, which is legal but not moral or just, I have no choice but to again honor the contract Priority/Capitol has rarely honored since 2000. Ironically, any attempts by me or my council to move forward have been drawn out, irrational, or just plain not responded to as we attempt to either release an album on capital or attempt to negotiate an amicable release (from the label). I wonder at times why EMI/Capitol continues to effectively enforce a judgement that it neither wants nor plans to honor, and how the costs incurred in undermining my career have been justified to upper management and shareholders. After 10 years hasnt my life been held up enough? What if I was your son or daughter with a dream, how would you feel then? I hope theres some shred of decency in some part of the executive level of EMI or Capitol so that we can at least have a rational dialogue moving towards resolution.

Sincerely, Ras Kass

http://www.petitiononline.com/raskass1/petition.html