Brownsville rap vet Ka just released his fourth studio album titled Honor Killed the Samurai last week, and unfortunately, he’s getting front page press for everything other than his rapping.
The New York Post probed through the discography of the 44-year-old rapper (born Kaseem Ryan in arguably Brooklyn’s most rugged neighborhood) and dug up old tweets and all the anti-cop lyricism they could find, including the record “Mr. Officer,” a crooked cop chin-check from his 2008 debut, Iron Works, and even put his last year’s salary on blast, which reportedly maxed at $148,558 for his work as the fire captain at Engine Co. 235 in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Ka took to his Twitter to indirectly respond to the Post’s cover story writing, “With love comes hate…can’t have one without the other. Be prepared for both.”
In their quest to uncover more dirt, the Post got a comment from Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, who somehow felt it was a firefighter’s civil duty to be the beacon of all things just in the neighborhood.
“The biases he portrays through his music are indicative of what he believes or feels,” Mullins, said of Ka, before adding “as a New York City firefighter, he should be trying to bring people together rather than fracture relationships, especially in communities of color.”
While the solidarity between a cop and firefighter have always been somewhat parallel, especially in post-9/11 New York society of all places, it is the law enforcement, not first responders or paramedics, who are looked upon to keep communities in a tranquil state for all its inhabitants. The same dirty cops whose behavior Ka has spent his career chronicling are the same ones who continuously spend their careers toeing the lines of the laws they’ve sworn to protect without any real culpability for inexplicable missteps and in many cases, and who get a slap on the wrist for actions that would be deemed as crimes for everyday citizens.
As for Mullins, he was recently in a position to do a lot more good to mend the “fractured” police-citizen relationship in “communities of color,” but instead, chose to make the country’s most vulnerable occupants the main event of a social media spectacle.
After proverbially spitting on viable solutions to thwart police brutality (like say, making it illegal for an NYPD officer to put a suspect in a chokehold, especially when they’re crying out how they can’t breathe), Mullins held a call to arms for New Yorkers to snap flicks of the city’s homeless and post them on a now debunk Flickr page.
“As you travel about the city of New York, please utilize your smartphones to photograph the homeless lying in our streets, aggressive panhandlers, people urinating in public or engaging in open-air drug activity, and quality-of-life offenses of every type,” Mullins wrote to kick off his SBA “Peek-A-Boo, We See You Too” campaign. “We will refer issues to the proper agencies, and we will help create accountability across the board.” What a leader.
By staying in his own hood, donning a uniform and always staying prepared to risk it all in a burning building for complete strangers, Ka is displaying the type of selfless-service no distractions of saying the n-word or outlining real life experiences about law enforcement can ever erase.
Honor Killed the Samurai is currently available on iTunes. Stream it below via Spotify.
Why is this in the “news” section if it is clearly an opinionated editorial?
this is like the corniest comment ever
Trent? Is that you mang?
Yep, it 100% is. Trent has a history of replying to comments under other names when he gets called out on shit. He’s too scared to use his own name lmao.
@ Omar Nope. When I make a comment, you’ll know it’s me. To answer the questions, if a publication like NYP can publish a slanted “exclusive” to push their agenda, we’re within our rights to do the same. Especially when Hip-Hop’s credibility is attempting to be tarnished.
Nah Trent, you idiot. It was you posting under a different name. The only reason you responded is because we called you out for doing so. We’ve all seen the same shit before. And what kind of answer is that? Why the fuck would you have a News and Editorial section only to post one in the other? Smfh. And please don’t compare yourself to the NYP, I cringed when you said that.
fucking hip hop backpack elitest nerds stfu and get a life, you hip hop nerds think your opinions matter so much but none of you lames buy records all you do is sift thru the internet, download illegally and give non-constructive criticism. and you wonder why that lame genre never goes anyway. its because fans of that category never support with money, are elitest when they cant even put together 8 bars, and run their mouth all day. pu$$ies
@Omar shut yo dumb ass up, nerd.
LMAO, You done fucked up. Its so easy to see it`s you writing those replies Trent, you fucking dumbass. Trent and “Yen-lo” both start off with the same “@ Omar” at the begining of they comments. And “white boy from the suburbs” is calling me “nerd” just like “Yen-lo” aka Trent. You really are an idiot Trent, and proved what a simple Simon ass nigga you really are. Now hold this L and sit the fuck back down…….loser. smfh.
@Omar, nah bruh you just a nerd that needs to stfu.
fucking hip hop backpack elitest nerds stfu and get a life, you hip hop nerds think your opinions matter so much but none of you lames buy records all you do is sift thru the internet, download illegally and give non-constructive criticism. and you wonder why that lame genre never goes anyway. its because fans of that category never support with money, are elitest when they cant even put together 8 bars, and run their mouth all day. pu$$ies!!!
For real. I was thinking the exact same thing. Not that I disagree but this definitely shouldn’t be in the news section, seeing as it’s someone’s personal opinion.
Opinion or not, the fact that you agree is good enough for me.
Sure he was. Totally that was the only reason why he was targeted. Also, in other news: hell just froze over.
Can’t stop Ka
Lol, I know dudes who joined the firefighters just so they could steal shit. My aunt had her apartment robbed by these fucks after somebody made a hoax call. Fuck cops and these thieving f.aggots.
great article, I think these opinion pieces should become a regular fixture to cut across the mainstream media bullshit & make all the trolls on this site uncomfortable.
my only issue is that the last sentence makes no sense no matter how many times I read it.