Kaseem Ryan, better known as Ka, is an American rapper and producer from Brownsville, Brooklyn. In 1993 he joined the underground hip-hop group Natural Elements under the alias K.A. and has been making music for fans of 90’s hip-hop ever since:
In 1998 he joined up with his friend Oddbrawl to form the rap group Nightbreed, but took a hiatus from rapping in 1999 to start his career as a firefighter for the FDNY.
In 2008 he released Iron Works with the intent of just sharing it with his family and friends, but one of his friends gave it to GZA. This resulted in GZA asking Ka to feature on the song “Firehouse.”
He became a captain for the FDNY in 2009 which caught him some heat in 2016 when the New York Post ‘outed’ him as an anti-cop rapper. This resulted in immediate backlash from the underground rap community and helped gain him more notoriety.
The internet age has allowed Ka to gain a larger following. His dense and slow paced lyricism have garnered comparisons with MF DOOM and his minimalistic production tends to heavily rely on obscure samples and movie skits to complement his spacious flow: