Who Is Ka?

Meet the Brownsville rapper behind "The Night's Gambit."

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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New Rules. Jay Z changed the landscape of the music industry by having Samsung sponsor the release of Magna Carta Holy Grail, changing the way the Recording Industry Association of America certifies album sales. Sponsorships dominate the game, generating extra revenue and attention for established artists and helping upstarts get their big break.

With sponsorships come a polished, professional style and sound, the antithesis of what hip-hop was when it started out as street corner cyphers and neighborhood block parties. In a sense, it’s awe-inspiring to see Jay Z rub shoulders with Judd Apatow at a fancy art gallery, but for those who loved the spirit of what hip-hop represented in a previous time, it’s a little disconcerting.

Wizened by decades of surviving the rough-and-tumble neighborhood of Brownsville, Ka stands in stark contrast to this current trend. The 40-year-old rapper grew up during hip-hop’s infancy and watched it expand into the multi-million dollar industry it has become today, eagerly waiting for his opportunity to share his craft with the world, unbridled by corporate strings. Somehow, he has emerged out of obscurity with his last two releases, Grief Pedigree and the more recent The Night’s Gambit.

His gravelly, monotone delivery, polysyllabic rhyme style, and gritty sample choices bring listeners of his music back to a time when large swaths of New York City were not safe. The weighty lyrics and vintage sounding beats make each project a piece of fine art, made for slow digestion.

Ka is a one-man machine: he writes the raps, makes the beats, shoots the video, and even mails out the CDs himself. And he manages to accomplish this all while still working a regular job outside of the music. We got on the phone with the Brownsville native to find out Who is Ka?

As told to Dharmic X (@DharmicX)

RELATED: Video: Ka "Off The Record"
RELATED: 10 New NY Rappers To Watch Out For 
RELATED: Stream: Ka "The Night's Gambit" 

Growing Up in Brownsville

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Ka: "There was a lot of uncertainty growing up. You weren't sure what was going to happen the next day. You weren't sure if shit was going to pop off. There was just a lot of doubt. It wasn't a good area to be a child in.


 

I lived in my grandmother and grandfather's house, and there was 13 of us in the house. It was a little crowded, you didn't have a lot of space for yourself. But it was home.


 

"I lived in my grandmother and grandfather's house, and there was 13 of us in the house. It was a little crowded, you didn't have a lot of space for yourself. But it was home. It was what it was at the time.

"You didn't know any better until you start growing up, and you start getting out of the neighborhood and seeing other people live. Or you start watching television and you're like, 'Oh okay, so this how you're supposed to be living?' And your life is nowhere near that.'

"I was one of the youngest for a long time. I always had older people around me. I was always the one getting jewels dropped on. Of course, being very impressionable at a young age, I picked up everything that they was doing as far as the guns and the drugs... all that."

Getting Into Hip-Hop

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Ka: "I grew up at the time when hip-hop was born. I remember my mom used to play disco and R&B that was on the radio a lot, and my pops, who was home from jail, he played a lot of jazz. And then, in 1978- or 1979 was when hip-hop came on the scene, and as soon as I heard it, that's what it was—the death of disco and the birth of hip-hop. From then on, I was a fan of hip-hop music.


 

I saw hip-hop from its inception to what it is today. I saw every stage of it. And I was a part of every stage of it. I was there in it.


 

"I saw hip-hop from its inception to what it is today. I saw every stage of it. And I was a part of every stage of it. I was there in it. From the very beginning, from wanting to do it, listening to it, I just loved it.

"I wanted to rhyme when my cousin came home from Spofford [Ed. Note—Juvenile correctional institution in NYC]. I was really young, I forgot how old I was. He came home and was around 13 or 14, was rhyming. I started beatboxing and banging on cars and shit, making beats for him. That was kind of my introduction to it. He was the first person I knew that was doing it, and I wanted to be like my cousin."

Being a Teenager in the Reagan Era

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Ka: "New York City was crazy. I would take the A train and I would have my box cutter on me not knowing if I had to split somebody's face open or if somebody was going to split my face. You know, if I had a $40 pair of sneakers, I wouldn't know if I would have to fight for these sneakers, because there was just bulls out on the streets.


 

New York City was crazy. I would take the A train and I would have my box cutter on me not knowing if I had to split somebody's face open or if somebody was going to split my face


 

"Halloween in the '80s was fucking crazy. It was mayhem in the streets during Halloween. I remember 42nd Street, like before credit cards was popping, we used to hit people's pockets... There were just no rules in the '80s. No rules. And if you survived the '80s, that was a blessing.

"And then came the '90s, which were just as dangerous, because then the guns kinda started to become introduced a little more. There was just a lot of poverty. You were either going to take it or you were not going to have it. It was that time and the rich were really rich and the poor were really poor. It was a big social and economic gap between the two and it made for desperate times."

Playing Basketball With Grant Hill

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Ka: "I played [basketball] in high school. That saved me from being in a lot of situations. I don't know nobody who was from the hood that I was from that didn't play basketball. From the most knuckleheads to the most nerds, they all played ball. That's what it was. That's how we socialized. We'd go to the park, and we'd play ball. I'd go to either 271 Park, I'd go to Howard Projects Park, I'd go to Kelly Park... That's how we just got off a lot of our angst, was through playing ball. And not everybody was really good, but it didn't matter. We just played ball.


 

That's how we just got off a lot of our angst, was through playing ball. And not everybody was really good, but it didn't matter. We just played ball.


 

"I played a lot. I was fairly decent. I knew I wasn't going to go to the pros when I went to Five-Star camp. Grant Hill was there and I was like, 'That's good, and I'm just alright." Five-Star Camp was my first time seeing guys from all over the country and testing my skills against theirs. That's when I realized that I'm going to be a medium player. On the street I'll be good, but as far as taking it any further than that then I knew I wasn't going to be there.

"Grant was always a good dude. Not that he'd remember me but I remember him. He was a superstar in high school. But yeah, he was really good back then and he would have been a Hall of Famer had he not gotten hurt."

Dropping Out of College

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Ka: "After high school, I didn't want to play ball anymore because I just knew it wasn't going to go anywhere for me. I wasn't going to get money. I went to school because my mother didn't want me to be out in the streets, thugging. I just went to school to appease my moms. But that shit wasn't serious for me.

"I went to City College, up at 137th St. in Harlem. Going up there might have been even worse for me because that's where the drugs were at. That's where you would go to get drugs from was right there on 145th, 155th and Broadway. I was going to school up there seeing it all and it was a turning point for me, knowing that the school shit really is a gamble.


 

It was just time for me to realize how I was going to make money in this world. How would I survive? And as a result, the dark shit started coming. My cousin was selling drugs, and it was just a natural progression.


 

"There was a lot of kids who were way smarter than me—I wasn't even smart, I felt like I was a dummy—and these kids were like fucking geniuses. They were going to get all the good jobs, and I was going to become a janitor or something. No disrespect to janitors, but I just knew that I wasn't going to be an actuary or an engineer. It was just time for me to realize how I was going to make money in this world. How would I survive? And as a result, the dark shit started coming. My cousin was selling drugs, and it was just a natural progression."

"I started by dabbling and trying to be any one of my cousins who was out of state, getting money, and had spots over here and there. I started with my cousin giving me just a little something to move on my own, and we were all in the same house together anyways, so I already knew what I was supposed to do with it.

"I'm not really proud of that shit, so I don't really like to talk about it. I wish I would have just stayed in school. It's a part of me but I'm not proud of that shit so I don't really like to talk about it too much."

Rapping in the '90s

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Ka: "Early '90s is when I started taking it seriously. That's when I started rhyming openly to people. I was always writing but I started rhyming openly to people, I would join the cyphers. At that time, I wasn't as good skill-wise, but those are usually the loudest, right?


 

We used to go every Saturday to The Bronx to Charlemagne's studio, and that was like 'Rap Grad School' because you learned how to make songs, you learned what a hook is, you learned what bars are, you learned how to structure songs, etc.


 

"I met up with Mr. Voodoo, and that was my introduction to Natural Elements. I was just fucking writing rhymes. They were making songs. We used to go every Saturday to The Bronx to Charlemagne's studio, and that was like 'Rap Grad School' because you learned how to make songs, you learned what a hook is, you learned what bars are, you learned how to structure songs, etc.

"We never put a project out. We did a couple of songs but nothing ever came out. I feel bad. I blame it on me, man. I felt like I was so bad on that fucking demo that I kinda fucked it up for them. Probably because it was like, 'These rappers are so good and so talented, and then this guy is so horrible and so fuckin wack.' It's hard to go back and listen to the shit because I sound so bad.

"It just so happened that one of my boys that I knew right down the block from me, Kev, who was my best friend, he started rhyming. He was ill. And he knew that I was rhyming. So we got together, and formed a group called Nightbreed. We did a single. We had an album that we did; that album never came out. But the single came out on Fortress Records, "2 Roads Out The Ghetto." You know, every now and then I hear people talk about how they have it. I don't even have it.

"We thought that the Natural Elements album that was about to come out on Nervous Records was going to be the catapult for us. We were on that album. We felt like we had a good showing on there, and people were going to be like, 'Who are those two dudes?' But the album never came out, and it kinda hurt all of us. I guess by then we were all dejected. We were already like seven years in and it was just harder. So everybody kinda was like, 'You know what? We're starting to get older now, it's kinda irresponsible for us to still just be doing this music shit. We have families and shit like that.'

"We still remain friends, you know. Especially me and Kev, that was my fam before hip-hop. After we stopped ourselves we became the harshest critics of everybody. We were the mad rappers telling everyone like 'Yo, he's corny." Like 'How come they ain't sign us?' Shit like that." 

Reviving His Rap Dream

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Ka: "It got to a point where like everybody had stopped doing it, but it was funny because I was still doing it in private. Every time that I quit, like even if I said it out loud, it didn't matter. Rhymes still came to my head. During the time frame when I said I quit, I just wouldn't write them on paper anymore. But it was still coming and still coming. It just so happened that for a long stretch of time I just wouldn't put it on paper. That was my 'quitting:' Not writing it down.


 

During the time frame when I said I quit, I just wouldn't write them on paper anymore. But it was still coming and still coming.


 

"I had a lady now in my life by this point. She used to catch me every now and then, when I would get a beat or I would hear some music and would just zone out, and she would be like, 'Baby, what are you thinking about'" And you know, I was embarrassed in the beginning to tell her that I rhymed and shit. I was just like, 'Every black man rhymes.' I didn't want to be that. I didn't even like the fact that I rhymed anymore, because it felt dirty to me. Everybody did it, it wasn't respectable anymore.

"It took me a long time to tell her that I rhymed, but she was real dope about it. She was like, 'You know what, if you really love it then you should just do it.' It was that confidence that I got from her that was just like, 'You know what, I'm not going to hide it anymore. I'm just going to do it and whatever happens from it happens.' I already knew that what I did wasn't going to make it on radio anymore, but it didn't mean that what I did was any less important."

Dropping Iron Works and Meeting GZA

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Ka: "I put out Iron Works in 2007. That was supposed to be my swan song. I wasn't supposed to do more. I wanted to do that album for all the people that believed in me. For all the people in the studio with me, for my sister who was my biggest listener when I was a kid. I wanted to give them a CD to put in their hand. I wanted to give my mother a CD to put in her hand. Like all of these years of rhyming... I just wanted to prove that I didn't waste 20 years of mastering a craft without anything to show for it. I did that album to give to my loved ones.


 

I just wanted to prove that I didn't waste 20 years of mastering a craft without anything to show for it. I did that album to give to my loved ones.


 

"I printed up CDs and I put it in his hands, and that was it. And it just so happened that one of the friends that I gave it to knew GZA. She was like 'I think GZA might like this.' I was like, 'Whatever. This is your copy.' I really didn't care. 'Whether you like it and listen to it or you let it sit there and collect dust, whatever, this is just my contribution for you being a good friend to me for all these years.'

"She gave it to him and he listened to it. She reported back and was like, 'He thinks you're ill.'That was enough for me. One of the greatest lyricists ever thought I was ill. I could've stopped there. That could've been it.

"But then she said that he said he was thinking about maybe doing an album and that he would like if I would come to his spot and record a track with him. When I heard that, I was emotional. Actually, at the time I wasn't emotional. I thought it was bullshit industry shit, like 'Yeah I'll do a song with him.' And then one day he called me and then we got in the studio, and it was just a dope experience.


 

One of the greatest lyricists ever, GZA, thought I was ill. I could've stopped there. That could've been it.


 

"It's funny because when I went in there, I got into the studio and I thought it was just going to be like... He said he wanted me to be on a song, I thought I was just going to be on a posse cut with a bunch of dudes. You know, I would spit a bunch of rhymes and send my ass on home. But I got in there and it was just him and an engineer dude. It was great.

"I didn't actually get to see him write any rhymes, because he was already in the process of just finishing off the project. When I got in the studio he was like, 'Yo, I've been listening to you and I think I got a beat that you might like.' And he played this 'Firehouse' joint and I was like 'Oh yeah, this is perfect.' And so I went into the booth and laid the first verse down. He got on the monitors and was like, 'That was dope. You got more?' And I was like, "Yeah, I got 20 years of more.' He let me rock on the whole song. We speak every now and then on the phone but I let him do his thing. 

"I hit him with a text like "Yo, I got a new project out." I just want to be able to give him the work that I've done just off the strength of what he did. Like I want to give him every project that I ever did just to thank him, like "This is what you did. Thank you."

Learning to Produce

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Ka: "Well, producing was a necessity. After you start rhyming, nobody knows who you are so you can't just manage to walk up to somebody's studio talking about ' I need some beats.' So it came to the point where I just had to make my own beats in order to rhyme over them.


 

Ka the rapper takes a lot of time from Ka the producer. Like with those two hats on I got to find a whole lot of beats for Ka the rapper to decide that he's going to rhyme over this.


 

"Early on, I was just rhyming over people's songs—I didn't even have instrumentals. I was rhyming over the words. I would play a song over and over again, and all of a sudden I don't even hear you anymore on it. Now I'm rhyming on your shit. And that was how I started getting back into it.

"Ka the rapper takes a lot of time from Ka the producer. Like with those two hats on I got to find a whole lot of beats for Ka the rapper to decide that he's going to rhyme over this. 

"In other words, a producer is going to have to do the same thing. He would have to be patient with me and know that I might love it today and then three weeks later, 'Nah that beat ain't right.' You know what I'm saying? I know that I have time and I can dig and I can go through record stores. I'll just do it myself and I don't have to be a headache for nobody else. I'll be a headache for myself."

Shooting His Own Music Videos

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Ka: "I knew that in this time of instant gratification, you can't tell kids to sit down and listen to a song. You can't keep anybody's interest for that long. Everything has to be associated with a visual. That's the only thing that can keep people interested. And I knew that. I knew that the kind of music I do is so dense. It's nothing that you can just pop in and just find some catchiness in it. It's real cerebral shit, so I had to do a visual for a song.


 

I'm not a director, I'm not a producer, I'm an MC and that's what I do the best. It just so happens that I can put something together that can look halfway decent. I'm just glad that the people liked it.


 

"'Cold Facts' was the first song, and so me and my lady got a camera. She went out at 3 a.m. one night, walked through the streets, picked some locations, filmed, and she was holding the camera like a soldier. Then we got back home, and I'm like, 'What am I supposed to do with this shit?' [Laughs] I have a Macbook and so I put it in the iMovie, and I started dabbling with it. I edited 'Cold Facts' on iMovie. It took me a whole day, and by the end of it we were both like, 'I think it looks good.' Then we put it on YouTube and I started a Twitter that day, and I tweeted it out, and then somebody picked it up.

"iMovie was just for the first video. I started doing some research and found Final Cut Pro. Now I do it on that. I don't know if I'm getting better, I'm not a director or nothing. It's just all out of necessity. But I don't want to take anything away from actual directors. I'm not a director, I'm not a producer, I'm an MC and that's what I do the best. It just so happens that I can put something together that can look halfway decent. I'm just glad that the people liked it."

Working With Roc Marciano

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Ka: "I linked with Roc through GZA. The beat that GZA played me ['Firehouse'] was a beat that Roc Marci gave him. When he told me who produced it, in my mind, I knew I really wanted to work with Roc and do a project with him.


 

Roc gave me strength. He was another big factor in me having the confidence to continue to do it.


 

"I just thought he was a producer. I didn't know that he was the same guy from the UN. I had just been into the UN album but I didn't put it together at the time. So I put out the feelers to see like how I could get in touch with Roc Marci to get a beat, and I ended up speaking to him. From then on it was just a mutual respect.

"We just clicked. We spoke all the time, he was telling me how dope I was, and it was good to hear because a lot of people were killing me for 'Firehouse.' I was interested at the time to see what 'Firehouse' did. Did people like it? And it was like nobody really liked it. They were talking about how it was the worst song on the album and that I sounded horrible. 'His voice is all gravelly, you can't even understand what he's saying. He's corny, he's wack.' It was hard to read all that shit. But it was good to know that someone who I actually respected was like 'Fuck the people. You murdered that.' He gave me strength. Roc was another big factor in me having the confidence to continue to do it."

Response to Grief Pedigree

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Ka: "I liked the fact that people recognized after so many years of people not paying attention to what I do. I didn't have any expectations, I just wanted people to hear the music. People were caring to listen to it and people were paying attention to the time that I took into writing it and quoting my lines, and using beautiful words to describe the art that I was making. It was finally like the justification for those times that I hated that I was even doing this.


 

I know that I was wack at one time. I know that I don't make party music. I know that sometimes it may seem like I'm boring. I know that I have a monotone kind of style. I know all this shit. But I know that what I do, nobody else is doing.


 

"With love comes hate. I already know that it's coming. I don't dwell on it. I have enough hate in my life. I'm good. That shit doesn't faze me. In fact, you can say whatever bad words you have to say. The fact is that you're not trying to kill me. I had people that tried to kill me before. So hearing people say that your music is wack does absolutely nothing to me.

"I'm my own worst critic. Nobody can say anything worse than what I already said about myself.  I know that I was wack at one time. I know that I don't make party music. I know that sometimes it may seem like I'm boring. I know that I have a monotone kind of style. I know all this shit. But I know that what I do, nobody else is doing.

"You can't party your whole life. If you live in a party then all of a sudden that party isn't going to be a party anymore. You gotta have a balance with this shit. If you have sugar all the time, all of a sudden salt is going to be what you want. You know what I'm saying? If you eat salt all the time maybe sugar is what you want. I'm trying to be that salt to all of this sugar that's being given out right now."

Evolution from Grief Pedigree to The Night's Gambit

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Ka: " I don't know if I've 'progressed.' You know, I think what's good about this project is... I don't know if it's my progression or if it's the listener's progression. I think people know how to listen to me now. If you're going to sit down with a Ka album, you really got to sit down with this shit. It's not disposable shit. I think the progression is that people understand what I'm doing now. They're listening to my songs and they're waiting for the lines to come.


 

You know those paintings that you stand in front, and you wait for your eyes to adjust until the picture comes out? I think that's the kind of music I do.


 

"You know those paintings that you stand in front, and you wait for your eyes to adjust until the picture comes out? I think that's the kind of music I do. They know there's something in there, and they first got to just wait and listen and listen and look and look, and then all of a sudden it will reveal something. That's what happens when you listen. That's what I have now. I think people know that now about me.

"And that was the biggest hurdle that I had to overcome because that's a big hurdle because not a lot of people have the time to do that shit. They'll listen one time and not understand it and be like 'That's a bunch of bullshit.' Now, people that really care about the art, they wait and they're looking at that picture, they waiting for the shit to reveal itself man."

The New Era of Rappers

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Ka: "I love it. I'm not regional though. I care about the art more than about the region. The boys in Brooklyn are doing it, the boys in Chicagoare doing it, the boys in LA are doing it... They have so many new movements of young MCs that care about rhyming.


 

I want all of those young boys that care, that give a fuck about rhyming, and that love it, to continue to get better and I want them to be more ill than me.


 

"I root for them. I root for Chance the Rapper. I root for Joey Bada$$. I root for Ab-Soul. I root for Earl Sweatshirt. I want all of those young boys that care, that give a fuck about rhyming, and that love it, to continue to get better and I want them to be more ill than me. I want hip-hop to always thrive. This is the music that I love. I want this shit to be around forever.

"I'm glad that we had Nas, Jay, Big, Slick Rick and all of them. Right now, while I'm still strong and my mind is still right, I want to be one of those soldiers holding it up until those young dudes come and they grab it from me and hold it up even higher. I root for anybody that loves hip-hop. If you love it, if you respect it, I love it."

Respecting Rap's Pioneers

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Ka: "I feel like something about the culture of hip-hop doesn't reflect back enough. We don't go back and we don't check enough. In rock 'n' roll, kids go back and they know who Led Zeppelin is. They know who The Doors are.


 

Art is art. If you're a poet or a sculpter or a painter, there's no age limit. It shows a lack of respect for the art.


 

"You know, I really feel bad for the pioneers because I hear shit like, 'greatest of all time' or 'best MC alive,' and that shit bugs me out. KRS-One is still alive. Rakim's still alive. I see that everybody who is hot right now gets that moniker of 'Best MC Alive.' That's crazy talk. Kool Moe Dee is still alive. Slick Rick is still alive. They don't get the props that they deserve, because they didn't get the money.

"I know that one hundred years from now, Eminem is going to be the greatest MC ever. Not because he's the greatest MC. It's because when they go back, that kid that's going to be introduced to hip-hop 100 years from now, what's he going to go back to? He's going to look and see who won the most Grammy's. 'Oh, so he must be the greatest.' 

"I think it's beautiful that KRS-One is still doing music. He should be still doing music. The problem with hip-hop is that there is a lot of ageism—'just because a man is a certain age he shouldn't be rhyming, that it's a young man's art.' Art is art. If you're a poet or a sculpter or a painter, there's no age limit. It shows a lack of respect for the art."

Having a Regular Job

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Ka: "I have a full time job and I work all the time. I try to keep that kinda low. I just have a job. It ain't my calling or nothing. It's just my job. But I love my job because it gives me the freedom to do the art. I feel like if I didn't have a job, that's when I would have to compromise myself a little bit more.


 

That's what happens when art becomes your bread and butter. Sometimes you gotta extend yourself a little bit more because that's your only means of eating.


 

"That's what happens when art becomes your bread and butter. Sometimes you gotta extend yourself a little bit more because that's your only means of eating. I'm blessed to have a job because a lot of people don't have one, but it's still just a job.

"It's funny, they didn't know I rapped for a long time. But then Grief Pedigree put the kibosh on that shit. One of the dudes was driving home from my job and he had satellite radio and 'Cold Facts' came on. And he said 'Hold on... that sounds like Ka? And his name is Ka?' He put two and two together, he came to work the next day and started telling everybody, and then he went on YouTube and pulled up the videos. But until then, it was very quiet. But it's funny because now, I didn't tell them I put out a new album. I let things just die down, they thought it was just a one time shot."

The Future

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