[Underground rapper and New York firefighter Ka dies 'unexpectedly' aged 52 | Metro News]
Really sad news. One of the most consistently excellent and interesting MCs of the last 20 years.
- No sort of age.
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wtf man 
Thatās awful news
Released a very strong album only a few weeks ago for anyone who missed it
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What the fuck!
Nah what the fuck!? Thatās so gutting. Terrible news 
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Thatās terrible news. He is so good. Just seemed like a wonderful person as well.
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I loved the idea of this guy working full time as a firefighter and releasing a knotty, thought-provoking, high-concept underground hip hop album every 18 months.
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Yes so much to like about the way he approached his art
Seem to remember that the shitty Murdoch tabloid in New York tried to do an āexposĆ©ā of him a few years back (ācity firefighter is gangster rapperā nonsense) but it was just based on such a fundamental misrepresentation of his work that they just made themselves look ridiculous.
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Jeez those sort of people are so weird
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ā¦that he promoted with a single tweet, and would only sell physical copies of in-person for one day.
Some chat about this in the rolling hip hop thread, but definitely warrants itās own thread. Really sad news. Such an interesting guy, with a really uncompromising approach. A career reinvention up there with MF Doom. Crazy to think that a self described āweak linkā from his old group would go on to make music at this level, let alone two decades later.
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Hard to think of anyone that embraced the idea of āconcept rapā with his ambition and intelligence.
A Samurai record is one thing, but who else would attempt a hip hop album based on Greek myths, or one based on The Manchurian Candidate?
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Such a beautiful approach to his art. Promo as soft as the delivery of his verses. Such quiet confidence can easily get swept away in this era of Maximum Content but somehow his didnāt. A beautiful thing thatāll be sadly missed.
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I missed that he had a new album out this year. Listened to it last night, so good! My knowledge of contemporary hip hop is fairly limited, but he always feels so different to everybody else.
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āReached at his firehouse, Ryan hung up the phone.ā
RIP Legend.
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yeah as said in the rap thread, a name I always meant to check out but never did. Will do it shortly and i bet thereās lots to discover and love - but also hate when that sort of discovery is prompted by a death. Such a sad way to discover someone new to you
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Was considering making a thread about him to celebrate his work, but I reckon we could do it in here.
Iād definitely say he changed what I thought about rap. Remember a friend bigging up Grief Pedigree whenever he could, so I thought iād give it a spin. Didnāt really click at first, but it had a couple of tracks on there that really stood out that I would come back for. The more I listened, the more came back and the more the whole thing clicked.
The Nightās Gambit was a really interesting listen when it first came out. Correct me if iām wrong, but it was probably one of the first albums that fully embraced drumless beats. You couldnāt really tell though as the beats were almost percussive in nature. Combined that with the fact his voice was so spellbinding, it all joined together to make this very special album and went on a run most rappers could only dream of. And the fact he did it in the most badass DIY way was the icing on the cake.
A true one of a kind. So thankful for the amount of art heās left behind.
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https://www.instagram.com/p/DBNEv62y0EM/?igsh=Mml2cTZveWwxbGd3
Didnāt have Mahershala Ali writing a tribute to Ka on Instagram on my bingo card, but here we are. Clearly very close friends too.
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Is the recent album a good place to start or is there another I should check out? Iāve heard some but never took a deep dive.
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