Saturday saw the death of Brooklyn rapper Kaseem Ryan, who also worked as a firefighter. He was 52.
His wife Mimi Valdés announced his death on Instagram and in a statement. The statement said he “died unexpectedly.” No cause was offered.
Ka captivated hard-core hip-hop audiences with dismal sounds and detailed portrayals of street life and hardship on 11 solo albums he produced and published over nearly two decades, first with the mid-1990s underground group Natural Elements and then on
The New York Times pop music reviewer Jon Caramanica called Ka “a striking rapper largely for what he forgoes: flash, filigree, any sense that the hard work is already done.
Kaseem Ryan was born in 1972 and reared in Brownsville, Brooklyn. He sold cocaine and guns as a teen.
After struggling as a rapper in the 1990s, he stopped music and returned a decade later.
At 35, he released his solo first album, “Iron Works,” in 2007. He initially manufactured 1,000 copies of the record and promoted it guerrilla-style.
“I gave them to cousins and friends. About 990 CDs remained. “So I started giving them away,” he told The Times in 2017. I would drive around the city and say, ‘You enjoy hip-hop?’ if I heard boom-boom-boom music from the next car at a red light.
With his second album, “Grief Pedigree,” released in 2012, he had a tiny but devoted fan base to announce it on social media and hold a curbside sale in Greenwich Village.
That started a pattern of Ka announcing new albums on social media and selling a few dozen hard copies from his trunk on street corners.
Ka would wrap up CD orders and mail them to fans in his Brooklyn study, according to a 2017 New York Times list of 25 important tracks.
He was a New York Fire Department captain while not making music.
“I try to keep my job and music separate,” he told the Times in 2017. “I never wanted to be ‘The Rapping Captain.’ I strive to combat fires well. I try to make dope songs at home.”
Ka criticised police brutality and 1990s drug trading in his songs. NYPD officers criticised him for anti-police songs in a 2016 essay.
His dying announcement on Instagram says he was a 20-year Fire Department veteran who responded to the 2001 World Trade Centre attack.
According to Ka’s Instagram, he is survived by his wife, mother, and sister. No survivors’ names were given.
His latest CD, “The Thief Next to Jesus,” addresses Christian themes and was published this year.
Ka uses subtle phrases and fragments to force you to hang onto each word. His speech is measured and calm with a steely determination that makes him seem more confident than ever.
