Ka, a former New York firefighter and iconic underground rapper, died at age 52, but his musical alter ego Ka continues to resonate through his lyrics.
The ka in ancient Egypt, a definition by Wikipedia: “Ka is vital energy and a spiritual double that is born at the same time as humans.” According to the legend, “the ka survives in the grave after death through funerary worship and deliveries of food offerings”. In today’s Brownsville, a Brooklyn neighborhood renowned for being one of the most feared if you value life, Ka is the rapper double of Kaseem Ryan, a former New York fire captain who is said to was one of the first to rush into the rubble of the towers on the morning of September 11, 2001. On October 12, Kaseem Rayan died suddenly at the age of 52. Ka, celebrated with fervor, will live on.
His music has always evolved in an underground spectrum, from the first beats of the Natural Elements collective, through Nightbreed (the duo he formed with Kev, who died in 2015), and even in the LPs of an exemplary solo career that began in 2008 with the album Iron Works. His world is limited to Brownsville. On Hoodhe raps: “I was raised in the hood / Hairs turn gray in the hood / On point all day in the hood / I survive in the hood / Ni**as that’s live in the hood / Still probably die in the hood.” But Ka is more a chronicler than a reporter, a teller, a storyteller who codes, a witness, like Allen Ginsberg in the poem Howl. His texts, connected to the myths of humanity, tell everything about structural racism in America, drugs, social violence and violence in general. In the main Hell on Earth: A decade of rap-fiction (Audimat éditions), Mohamed Magassa and Nicolas Pellion add to the subject of his album Descendants of Cain (2020) : “We no longer know if it is the Old Testament which sheds light on the history of the district or the other way around.”
Rap mapping
A song, Mr. Officerearned him the reputation of being a primary anti-cop, an ungrateful patriot, he who risked his life in these two towers reduced to dust, all for having told the truth: “Took a vow of protector server / All you do now is disrespect and murder / I ask that you not hurt my kids / This is where you work, this is where I live.” Where he lives, the community… all these things that the rap medium continues to map today, while grim news reaches us from the United States of its most capitalistic counterpart, in the light of Diddy’s trial for sex trafficking, extortion and more if you like. “Can’t afford to have one wasted or fall through / Cause if one make it, we all do”, he raps on Tested Testimonya piece taken from The Thief Next to Jesushis latest album released last August. A refrain that resembles a motto.
