Van Gogh (Ras Kass album)

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 album. Ras Kass' fans called the disc a big comeback from the emcee's second effort, Rasassination. Songs like "Hot Game," "Goldyn Chyld," "Kiss of Death" (an Alchemist dis track), "TV Guide," and "N.B.A." gave him a little hype with his fans, although it didn't create a big buzz like Priority Records wanted. On Van Gogh, Ras rhymed 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 emcees on its roster. What really proved this was that Ras Kass' first two albums were already deleted because of bad decision making and poor promotion by the label. However, during this time, Priority Records was in the process of being absorbed by Capitol Records, its sister label within the EMI family. After some negotiations, a revised version of the album titled Golden Chyld was put in The Release pipeline, but it too was shelved.

The album has two track listings 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 was only a pre-release. Most tracks were the same, but some songs were differently structured than their counterparts on the other version. For example, the track "Hot Game" on the pre-release was edited differently and has a singing sample, while the retail version had samples from emcees such as Royce Da 5'9". Also, "Kiss of Death" on the retail version had a different chorus and a slightly different beat than "Kiss U" did.

Track listing

Pre-release version

1. Hot Game
2. Goldyn Child
3. Back it Up (featuring Kokane)
4. Kiss U
5. Kick Rocks (featuring Tray Deee)
6. 4 Much (featuring Nate Dogg, Bad Azz and Tash)
7. What U Want (featuring Mike City)
8. Is This Love
9. [...] (featuring Jelly Rolland Xzibit)
10. N.B.A. (featuring Xzibit and Saafir)
11. One Night
12. Ah-Ha
13. Root of Evil (featuring Kokane)
14. Van Gogh
15. T.V. Guide

Retail version

1. Intro
2. Hot Game
3. Goldyn Chyld
4. Back it up
5. Kiss U
6. [...]
7. Is This Love
8. Twins
9. Kick Rocks
10. 4 Much
11. What U Want
12. N.B.A.
13. Commercial
14. TV Guide (Mumia's Theme)
15. Ah-Ha
16. One Night
17. U R Mad
18. Roots of Evil
19. Van Gogh
20. Ignant
21. God Bless
22. Eulogy