Happy 10th Anniversary to Ka’s second studio album Grief Pedigree, originally released February 11, 2012.
Rappers have been describing the urban decay of New York City since Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s classic 1982 single “The Message.” But few have done so as well as Kaseem “Ka” Ryan on Grief Pedigree. The rapper’s sophomore album, released 10 years ago, is a severe soundtrack to the grimy streets and dark alleyways. In particular, it perfectly captures the reality of Brownsville, Brooklyn, the neighborhood where he was raised.
Ka’s rise is a tale of perseverance, as it came after a number of less successful stabs at making it. He broke in as a member of the Natural Elements crew, an iconic collective that operated in the NYC underground during the 1990s. He appeared a couple of times on their earliest EP, released in 1994. However, in his own words, he was the least-dope member of the group, and knew he had to work to improve.
A few years later, Ka took another shot as one-half of Nightbreed, a duo he formed with his friend Kev aka OddBrawl the Lyrical Juggernaut. The pair released the 12” single “2 Roads Out the Ghetto” independently through Natural Elements imprint Fortress Records, in 1998. That same year, their song “I Got Your Back” appeared on the well-received Hip-Hop Independents Day Vol 1. on Nervous Records. However, neither hit beyond the regional level, and Ka’s career stalled again.
At some point, Ka joined the New York Fire Department, and rose through the ranks to become a fire captain in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Ka has never exactly hidden his career as a member of the FDNY, but he has rarely discussed it in interviews, preferring to keep that part of his life private.
A decade after “2 Roads Out the Ghetto,” things finally clicked for Ka as a rapper. For one, he released Iron Works (2008), his first solo album. The album is a relatively low-key endeavor that set the stage for the production style and approach that would define the rest of his career. It was a solidly dope project, but in retrospect sounds like a rough draft of what was to come.
Ka ascended to a higher plateau with Grief Pedigree. Thus far, it’s his masterpiece, and one of the best albums of the 2010s. Rapping in a flat monotone and occasionally a harsh whisper, Ka uses his “gun metal grey rhymes” to provide sharp insights on how to survive in the often-unforgiving environment of Brownsville. The album is entirely self-produced, as Ka creates a spartan aesthetic. Ka barely adds anything to the soul-driven samples, with the lean tracks perfectly complementing the harsh subject matter.
A lot of the success of Grief Pedigree comes from the lore of how Ka decided to promote it. To distribute physical copies of the project, he set up shop outside a former location of Fat Beats New York, located at 406 6th Avenue in Greenwich Village (technically its second home). The legendary record store had closed permanently in September 2010, and less than a year and a half later, Ka would hold court outside of the former underground hip-hop Mecca, slanging CDs and eventually vinyl to those who stopped by.
Ka also put the visual representation of Grief Pedigree at the center of the album’s marketing, as he directed and edited videos for all 11 songs on the project. Most share the same minimalistic approach as his recorded material. Nearly all are in black and white, shot on location in Brownsville and throughout New York City. Taken together, they’re a great collection of short arthouse films, echoing Grief Pedigree in all of its tenacity.
“Cold Facts” is considered Grief Pedigree’s first single. Ka’s production bolsters the song’s vibe, as he loops up a warped electric guitar and adds a mostly sparse percussion track. Ka chronicles the lessons he learned growing up in Brownsville, watching peers succumb to the perils of the neighborhood while he engineered a way to escape the violence through his lyrical talents. “The illest psalms written with killer palms and a scoundrel mind,” he explains. “But nice, cyphed with anybody down to rhyme.”
“Collage,” the album’s second single, pulses with metronome-like precision. As the title suggests, Ka describes life in Brownville in a collection of images. His raps are chant-like, while a muted guitar groove and bells whisper in the background, creating a hymn to street life. “From the past we the last of a dying,” he raps. “Plenty fell, live in hell, blasting the iron / Ways of fail, blaze a trail, path of a lion / Skating jail, raise a scale, lab like it's science.”
Ka again experiments with non-traditional time signatures and styles of delivery on “Vessel,” Grief Pedigree’s most sonically unorthodox entry. Ka hooks up a sample of what sounds like a vaguely East Asian track, filled with buzzing keyboards and percussion. He matches the beat’s weirdness by starting and stopping his flow, delivering one lengthy verse and interjecting ad-libs or vocal samples to fill the spaces where necessary. “Through me the lost art’s preserved,” he states. “To make my point use the harshest words.”
“No Downtime” sounds like something that would have fit in well on Ghostface Killah’s Iron Man (1996). Musically, it’s the most “upbeat” song on the album, with Ka rhyming over a soulful string and vocal sample. In terms of content, it’s as bleak as much of the rest of Grief Pedigree, as Ka explains how spending his formative years ducking enemies, police, and death has kept him in a constant state of hyper-awareness of his surroundings.
“Decisions” is another highlight, as Ka presents a string of choices that Ka and other Brownsville residents face when trying to figure which path they plan to walk. Despite the seeming simplicity of the rhyme scheme, the soaring sample from Arthur Conley’s “Love Comes and Goes” gives it an epic energy.
“Summer” is Ka’s grim take on making a dedication to the warmest months of the year. Ka demonstrates for those doing dirt on the street, summertime has a much different connotation than for others. Tensions run high as the temperature increases, and more and more people get killed over territory. Ka describes the scenes of violence in unflinching detail, demonstrating how death comes at you fast. “They blasting goons late afternoon for a roadblock,” he raps. “Started clapping my lil’ man, was unwrapping his Blow pop / Shot in the face never got the taste of Sour Apple / Strays from the trays put him down like a power tackle.”
Ka successfully juxtaposes his gritty recollections of street life with smooth musical tones. Two of the best songs of Grief Pedigree, “Every…” and “Up Against Goliath,” take this approach, using almost delicate melodies to counterbalance the raw rhymes Ka delivers. On “Up Against Goliath,” Ka recalls spending his youth building his criminal credentials, looking to build a name for himself through whatever means possible. “The proven wizard that move deliberate,” he raps. “Way of tools exhibit the rules are rigid / Reside and abide, or lose your gizzards / Block hot and hearts cold from heat waves through the blizzards.”
The only guest appearance on Grief Pedigree comes on “Iron Age,” where Ka teams with his brother in arms, Roc Marciano. The L.I.-born Marci was integral to Ka’s development in the late ’00s. Ka had his own solo appearance on GZA’s Pro Tools (2008), the aptly named “Firehouse.” “Firehouse” served as a further showcase for Ka’s improved skills as an emcee and was much more widely available than Iron Works. The song was produced by Roc Marciano (credited as Rock Marci in the liner notes) and was the first real “meeting” between the two artists. The pair struck a friendship, which endures to this day.
The track is more upbeat than much of Grief Pedigree, with both Ka and Marci dispensing mayhem to a solid string sample. “In rough waters, n****s bolt, I stay and never waver,” Ka boasts. “Y'all all sweet, I'm more unique with a better flavor.” Roc Marci follows with an equally strong verse, flowing effortlessly as he raps, “I’m a panther, you real prissy and pampered / Lyrically, to me, you're a pamper / My stanzas, gotta hand ’em out to fiends like samplers / But honestly, I should’ve went to Stanford.”
“Iron Age” was designed to be a preview of the duo’s chemistry for the pair’s planned Metal Clergy project. Shortly after Grief Pedigree’s release, Ka and Roc Marci announced that they were working an album called Piece Be With You. A decade later, the long player has yet to be released. Both have been relatively mum on its status, so it’s not clear whether it’s even still in the plans.
As it would turn out, both Ka and Roc Marci became extremely influential throughout the 2010s and onward. You can find a lot of the DNA of Grief Pedigree and Marci’s Marcberg (2010) in artists like Buffalo’s Griselda collective and a whole generation of artists focused on delivering grimy hip-hop. It’s led to a mini-renaissance throughout the late 2010s, continuing into the 2020s, of East Coast emcees and crews bringing hip-hop to its rough essence.
Ka has had a fairly productive career since Grief Pedigree, releasing six subsequent products. Along the way, the New York Post tried to “out” him as a rapper, essentially writing a hit-piece that implied he was betraying the FDNY and the NYPD with his recording career. The article was met with nearly universal derision.
Grief Pedigree is a reminder of how simplicity in execution often belies depth in content. Since the project’s release, Ka’s approach has been oft-imitated, but rarely even exceeded. A decade later, he’s still one of the best in the business, describing life’s perils with a masterful command of language.
BUY Grief Pedigree via Ka’s Official Store
LISTEN: