Ras Kass is no longer a fugitive from justice. In the early morning hours of Saturday, May 24th, John Austion aka Ras Kass was arrested and taken into custody by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department.

According to Ras' good friend and MC protégé Scipio, Ras Kass was arrested after the vehicle he was a passenger in was stopped by the police.

"From my understanding, (the driver) was driving kinda crazy and so they just got knocked like that," says Scipio. The reckless driving proved fatal to Ras' standing as a free man, as Scipio notes, "you can't do shit in Vegas, it was just the homie was drivin' way out. It's crucial when you're on the run from the law, any little thing as you can clearly see can happen to fuck up the whole thing."

In town to do a show, Ras is now awaiting extradition back to Los Angeles were he will make his first court appearance sometime within the next week.

Any additional charges or possible bond for the legendary lyricist are currently not known.

According to Scipio, Ras Kass' incarceration will not slow the release of new material.

"We still gonna keep it movin', everything is gonna keep runnin'. You gon' think it's on some 'Pac shit, 'cause we got music, we gonna keep the nigga alive."

Currently Ras Kass has two new full-length albums due for release, Ras Kass Presents...The Re-Up, a compilation style album featuring Scipio and others due to be released this summer on Empire Musicwerks/BMG, and, Catch Me If You Can, an all new solo release and DVD.

As for public perception of the Waterproof MC's stint as a fugitive, Scipio believes Ras has only done what he was forced to. "I believe if anybody was put in this situation they would react similar."

Ras status as a fugitive may have come to an end, but his status as a Priority Records recording artist remains unclear.

The label has not publicly released a statement regarding any of Ras Kass actions over the past few months, and Scipio for one believes they are directly responsible for all of this.

"Priority/Capitol didn't wanna drop this nigga's shit, and if you're tryin' to hold somebody from eating, holdin' a nigga back from feeding his family, but he gonna do his time like a man and hold his head, but they wouldn't let him get his paper straight before he had to turn himself in. If you see somebody at your record label in this much anguish, if you're a humane person, why wouldn't you let them go?"

AllHipHop.com