Raised in the lower-class neighborhood of Brownsville in Brooklyn, New York, East Coast rapper Kaseem Ryan (aka Ka) got his start during the golden age of rap, in the group Natural Elements. When that project fizzled out, he formed the underground hip-hop duo Nightbreed with fellow rapper Kev. For his first solo outing, 2008's Iron Works, he appropriated the boom-bap style of the '90s, and his unique lyrical style drew the interest of the Wu-Tang Clan's GZA, who invited Ka to guest on the song "Firehouse" on Pro Tools. 2012's Grief Pedigree and 2013's The Night's Gambit followed on his own Iron Works label. Through the 2010s, Ka continued to build his catalog with an extensive set of conceptual LPs. The first of these were Days with Dr Yen Lo (2015), a collaboration with Preservation based on the film The Manchurian Candidate, and Honor Killed the Samurai (2016), a conceptual solo album paralleling New York's street culture with feudal Japan. In 2018, the rapper collaborated with producer Animoss, adopting the pseudonym Hermit and the Recluse for the mythology-themed Orpheus vs. the Sirens. Ka moved into the 2020s with the biblical concepts of fifth album Descendants of Cain, as well as the more direct sixth LP, 2021's A Martyr's Reward. ~ Jason Lymangrover & David Crone, Rovi