Brownsville rap legend Ka dies at 52

thefader.com:

Kaseem Ryan, the beloved Brooklyn rapper and producer better known as Ka, has passed away, according to a Monday, October 14 post to his Instagram account.

He “died unexpectedly in New York City on October 12,” the post reads. He was 52. Ka was born and raised in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville.

Per the post, he was a “20-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department” and a first responder to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, eventually rising to the rank of captain.

He achieved all of this while quietly amassing a prodigious catalog of densely lyrical, starkly produced music — 11 solo albums, as well as collaborative releases as one half of Hermit and the Recluse, Dr.