KA - A Tribute to the Bard of Brownsville

Ka was a rapper best listened to in solitude. Ideally, you needed a quiet room to listen to him for two reasons - he had a low, gravelly voice and he spoke such brilliant, beautiful, poetic words. You did not want to miss anything he was saying, such was his genius. He is living proof that experience is the best teacher. Ka made music for his people. The thing is, his people were all of us who ever struggled. As such, Ka made universal music.

Unfortunately, I did not know this when I started listening to him. I took to him like I did every other rapper - and so I unfairly dismissed him. But then I heard him rap on a certain track which I only listened to because of another rapper - Roc Marciano (I love Sincerely Antique), and I realised that this was not a man to be trifled with. Then I heard I Love [Mimi, Moms and Kev] and I knew that I was not going anywhere.

It has been a year since Kaseem Ryan aka Ka died. In that year, I have listened to all his albums at least three times and some specific songs at least one hundred times. The honest truth is that this does not really matter. This is because Ka is (I use "is" because to paraphrase SchoolBoy Q, "shit a legend like him can't die") so singular a voice that he will forever live on.

Make every verse crazy as if tomorrow I'll push my first daisy

This is what Ka did. It will take multiple listens, and sure there are rappers that sound more technically proficient and definitely had more flair. All that doesn't matter. The thing is that Ka is a dense rapper. Dense in the sense here meaning compacted and full. He is also a genius and it doesn't take more than one album to see why. However, the most important thing about him is that he was aware of what he wanted to achieve with his raps, and rapped to that end. He wasn't one for using multiple words where one would suffice. When I started this article, I didn't have a favourite Ka album or song. Rather what I had were songs that spoke to me the most. However, after multiple listens of his albums in order to write this, I believe that song for song, Orpheus vs the Sirens MIGHT be my best album (though that changes regularly), while Ascension MIGHT be my favourite song, with his verse on Ephesians by Roc Marciano being my favourite guest verse.

I remember the first song I heard properly by him. It was Sins of the Father which featured Roc Marciano. As I mentioned earlier, I listened to that song because it had Roc Marciano, who was an artist I was more familiar with at that point. Imagine my awe when Ka started rapping. Sins of the Father is Ka at his most simple, yet at his most skillful. A masterclass.

 

The system only leaned on us, never showed us lenience

 

The beauty about that song is that on another rapper it might have come off like a gimmick but with his voice and demeanor, he always comes off as someone giving sage advice. Never preaching because he is too realistic for that. Rather, he simply talks about his life - his journey, his struggle and his joys. And, speaking of his struggle, he was a firefighter in the NYFD and was one of the first responders during 9/11. So for him rap was a calling and not a job, and as such, he never needed to compromise his vision to appeal to the crowd. Due to this, his music was always somewhat insular and, not for everyone, but if you were one of his faithful, you were infinitely blessed. And I think that is what drew me to him. Yes, as a rapper he was a bit tough to truly bump to, but once you viewed his rapping as something to be embraced and wrapped in rather than to just nod your head to, you just moved with the flow. 

Flow aquatic, known alone for my slow hypnotic

Though some fault and throw salt, kept a low systolic

And so what if you have to read the lyrics to truly understand. You find deeper meanings and more connections when you do, and I believe that is what he wanted. I remember when I finally understood

 

 When world hurt me, Euterpe was the 9 I used

 

from Argo and I shed a tear inside my cheek because that was literal poetry (get it?). I genuinely do not know of another rapper that could do that. 

Build 'til my pot is filled or in potter's field

One fun thing about Ka was that his albums had brilliant names (Orpheus vs the Sirens, Honor Killed the Samurai, Descendants of Cain, The Thief Next to Jesus) and they dovetailed into general themes (framing his life as mythological struggle, framing his life as a Samurai, framing his life via the struggles of Cain, framing his life via the Bible and African American churches etc). Relatively heady and heavy concepts that in all honesty not everyone could or should try to pull off.

 

I plan my death before I plan submission 

Ka died last year leaving behind 11 albums. He wasn't a prolific collaborator, preferring to work alone (rap and production wise), but his most frequent collaborations were with Roc Marciano, another rapper who is not giving too much of a fuck about the mainstream. Even though they are markedly different rappers, I believe they had a core that bound them together. I will say Roc Marciano is his brother. 

 

Got brothers that's not blood, they're brothers cause they bled with me

I know Ka was married to a lovely woman called Mimi Valdez (he spoke about her on I Love [Mimi, Moms, Kev]) and I am sure he had a fulfilling life. He was an intensely private individual, 

That's why I don't like performing these songs, 'cause every line hurts

but then he gave us his life through his songs, and so what more could we ask for.

To close the thought, your support was life-savin'
Now death is minor, 'cause you got me livin' life major
I stayed forever, you make me better

He didn't have children, for personal reasons

 

Scared to put seeds in the uterus that love me. 

Growing, knowing my roots indeed rotten. 

Producing bad fruits, all my family tree's dropping.

However, we have Navy Blue, who might be the spiritual successor to him, and whose verse on We Living/Martyr is nothing short of beautiful and frankly one of the most poignant things I have ever heard in my life. After listening to Dreams of Distant Journey and 224, I understood why Ka believed he had found a kindred spirit.

 

Grandma love it when I'm home 'cause she adore me
Story of the grateful, I set aflame to all the nonsense
My father absence, bittersweet love everlasting
White fabrics for my peace of mind, its not for fashion
Light casting from my inner most, we livin' fast lane

 

Side note: my grandmother died earlier this month, so the line above hits extra hard.

I believe we as his fans have the most sacred of duties to preserve his memory as much as possible, because he was truly a once in a generation rapper and we might never see his like again. 

 

The truth is that I miss him in the sense that I will never get another tape from him and shout when I finally understand a particular line. I miss him that I didn't know him long enough to witness his album launches. I miss him that I will never shake his hand and tell him how his words inspire me to be a better man. I miss him. And it hurts me. Deeply. So, I keep on going back to his body of work. To his guest verses. Listening. Searching. Understanding. Knowing that one day I will know every lyric he has spat and they will seat in my head like the priceless words of wisdom they are. My duty is to introduce him to as many people as possible. To paraphrase ScHoolboy Q (again)

 

Shit a legend like him can't die

 

But using a ScHoolboy Q lyric seems sacrilegious when he has so many verses that talk about the importance of positive impact. 

 

I think the mistake I made with him was that I listened normally. I didn't put in the work required. Ideally it would annoy me that I needed to work to listen to a rap song, considering I have been listening to rap all my life. But, I heard I Love [Mimi, Moms, Kev] and suddenly I realised I was not dealing with a typical nigga. I Love [Mimi, Moms, Kev] is honestly the best depiction of love I have ever heard in my life. So I went back and started to re-listen to everything. I honestly prefer his later work (2015 upwards) but I'm not knocking his earlier stuff (Cold Facts is a stone cold classic). 

 

They should build museums from all the shit I'm writing 

 

I don't really want to talk about his individual songs, but I will single out Ascension from Languish Arts. That song is a thesis all on its own. It's one of his most straightforward and forward looking songs. Lines like 

I talk to you like an old uncle, that's my nuance
Got killed, couldn't build with my uncles, just my two aunts

/

What's more, understand my posture 'til I'm posthumous
'Til little me's thinking critically, I got no accomplishments

/

I believe they call him father 'cause you supposed to get past that

 

showed his vision, while lines like

  

Don't waste ink, I'm succinct, it's measurеd efficiency

 

showed his methodology to rapping. 

As I mentioned earlier, my best tape from him might be Orpheus vs the Sirens (though this is quickly changing). Apart from the name which I love, it's thematically one of his best and clearest albums. Also, the rapping is stellar. However, I suppose you could say that about all Ka albums, such is the genius and beauty of the man.

  

 

Was Ka a legend? In all honestly, I don't know. What I do know is that he gave me wisdom, showing me that in as much as I love rap and will pass it on to my children, its' best days aren't behind it. There are still people who prioritise certain things, and are still giving us jewels, words to live by and aspire to. And for that I am eternally grateful.

 

I'm in my winter you can tell by the snow in my beard 

 

I am talking about I Love [Mimi, Moms and Kev] and how it's possibly the greatest love song ever. What it does is focus on what the object of affection did for Ka, and so he was talking from a place of love but also acknowledging the tangible reason for the love. It wasn't abstract or ethereal. It was real and tough and hard won. It was worthy. 

Wanted to give you the world, I saw you here strugglin'
All praise to the Father, I had you here motherin'

I am talking about Golden Fleece and how it's about the struggle we all face, but he has intertwined it with Greek mythology and taken it to a whole other level, so we as listeners are feeling like our problems are big and so we need big solutions to overcome them. But he gives us the heroes that overcame them and we are comforted that everything is possible, and all problems are surmountable if we strive hard enough. Because all he wants is 

 

I want compassion from the Highest
Food for the lowest
Cures for the afflicted
Roofs for the homeless
Direction for the misled
Heat for the coldest
Love for the lonely
Peace for the soldiers 

I am talking about Ascension and how it's word after word after word of advice from a man that has been through the shit and doesn't want to see his young ones go through it. Rather there is another path to take and he provides that path. And had been doing that since he was a child 

 

Baby sister named me, and since was six I had a purpose
Writings I drew excited my core, I bought a surface
It comes from these meant to accompany, though they callin' 'em verses

I am talking about We Living/Martyr and how he ceded space to Navy Blue to give us one of the most touching verses of his career, and how Ka gives us a very rare beat switch and yet still give us this line 

 

The black is what held me back, when I was young and gifted

I am talking about every collaboration with Roc Marciano, who despite their different styles and subject matters still managed to give us some of the best raps and nowhere is that more evident than on Sins of the Father where they rapped as one.

 

From the 'Ville, still payin' for the sins of my father
From the Island, still payin' for his sins, he was wildin'
From the 'Ville, still payin' for the sins of my father
From the Island, still payin' for his sins, he was wildin'
Time for clemency, change the verdicts
Whatever he did, we ain't deserve this

Time for clemency, change the verdicts
Whatever he did, we ain't deserve this

I am talking about Day 13, whose haunting beat coats this line: 

 

My pen grip descendant of Zulu
On my premier I'm paired as a Guru

 

and we have Ka boasting, but knowing he has earned the right to.

I am talking about Such Devotion where he starts with  

 

When you're broke crushing coke don't take much coaxing
Cooking the raw is a foot in the door, tryna bust it open
But dudes ain't making moves, our view is just commotion

Brutal in his honesty, and why should it not be? As his life has unfolded, why should he not use it to tell his story and move his people forward? Also, that first line is so fucking spectacular.

 

I read an article about him in which the writer said his words won't cut butter while Ka is a knife blade and as such he wasn't qualified to write about him, and honestly, I felt that (this article is actually a perfect example of that). But, the thing is we are all butter knives compared to him. And, in all honesty he deserves the flowery praise from his fans. We can't be him. We can only aspire. If we stumble, who better to listen to than Ka to show and recognise that we aren't perfect, and that as long as we are trying our best, that is all that matters.

 

I think that one of the things that connected me to Ka the most was that he was a proud man, unashamedly so. 

 

They never call you "Sir" if you surrender

 

He wore it on his sleeve and was not shy about it. It made me feel that one could make it and still stay true to themselves. He went out on his own terms, which is more than I can say for a lot of people.

 

I plan my death before I plan submission

 

Fittingly, both of these lines were on his last album, almost as if he knew what was coming. 

 

And so I publish this on the one year anniversary of his death. I will definitely refer to him again as long as I continue to write. That's just how important his music is to my life. The beautiful thing about his raps is that they are so great that they could soundtrack any facet of life. And I am sure there are poets that have more interesting verses about the ending of things, but this is Ka, who said 

 

I live this vivid shit, I ain't that creative

 

In that spirit I will end with four lines from him. The first is from Ascension

Every mention is for hood ascension
May not be a good man, but got good intention

The second is from Sirens

 

I think it's fine to relinquish mine for the life of our seeds 

 

The third is from Argo

 

My discretionary tales, for some unnecessary
For some irrelevant
The people love me deeply ‘cause I speak that ugly elegant
True what I do is hood intel, intelligent 

  

The last is from Ephesians by Roc Marciano, which contains one of Ka's best (and extremely rare) guest verses, and he says some of the truest words to live by

 

Once you get aggravated with all that fabricated, 

come fuck with me.

 

Yes indeed.

 

 

 

The Bard of Brownsville Playlist