| Rap Up for the Week of 1.15.16 | January 15, 2016 |
New rap music from Kanye West & Madlib, Freddie Gibbs, Ka, Isaiah Rashad, and some neo-soul from Kendrick Lamar.
| “I’m Inspired By Pain” — An Interview with Ka | December 8, 2015 |
The Brownsville representative talks pain, gentrification, New York rap, The Manchurian candidate and much more.
| You Do Not Want That Old Thing Back: Moving On With New New York in 2015 | December 19, 2014 |
If Brian Josephs was the Big Apple, he'd be hard to the core. And he'd make sure Ka was king, and all was good.
| Ka’s Dead Prophet Report | October 16, 2014 |
Anwar Sabreen does not approve your trite Disney references. Ka is no longer a secret. He is Brownsville’s late bloom comeback story. He went from bowing out of the rat race gracefully, to crafting two critically acclaimed albums back to back. His YouTube channel had been transmogrified into a frigid project cul de sac via a […]
| Some Sink, Some Float: KA’s Surprise EP “1200 B.C.” | July 1, 2014 |
Kyle Ellison asks you to take off that necklace Nice N Smooth Ka has been spoiling us lately and he knows it. Having dropped back-to-back masterpieces in 2012 and 2013, the Brownsville lyricist looked up and saw that he had disciples – and what fun is having disciples if you can’t make them work a […]
| Ka Knows It’s About | November 15, 2013 |
Max Bell knows who killed Harry Crumb. The opening track from Ka’s The Night’s Gambit, “You Know It’s About” sets the tone for the entire record, grounds it in gritty limestone and grout. Ominous guitar chords and thundering, driving drums paint the Brownsville underbelly in the bleakest of blacks, whites, and grays. The sound is steady […]
| Ka, The Dark Night Returns | August 22, 2013 |
Ka is the only artist whose music our staff collectively refused to pirate. Such is the respect for a O.G. who went from Natural Elements to the firehouse, to having the best late career renaissance this side of Juicy J. He is either the last of the Mohican’s or the first of something new. Listening […]
| The Top 50 Albums of 2012 | December 24, 2012 |
On a Previous Episode of the Passion of the Weiss: The Top 50 Albums of: 2011; 2010; 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006 50. House Shoes – Let it Go [Tres] No best album list is complete without something from Detroit. Nowhere else is as no frills and unvarnished. It operates as a palate cleanser to remind […]
| The Iron Age Starring Ka & Roc Marciano | October 15, 2012 |
Ka and Roc Marc rap in black and white. You are fam or foe. Weight is moving or it’s not. Struggle. Street politics. The pen keeps scribbling. Together, they are De Niro and Liotta in Goodfellas—before the fall, of course. They are camo shorts and crisp black and white tees. It’s the anti ‘bubble-gum backpack […]
| Stained Glass Thoughts from Has-Lo | July 23, 2012 |
Like Ka and Roc Marciano, there’s a patient painstakingly assembled quality to Has-Lo’s music. If you listen to it only once, you might even find it a bit boring. Has’ rarely modulates his voice, opting for a cool detachment, the lucid narrative eye triumphs over the bloodied combatant. It initially seems like aloofness, but upon […]
