Artist: Ka
Album: “Descendants Of Cain”
Favorite Tracks: “Every Now and Then”, “Unto the Dust”, “Solitude of Enoch”, “Land Of Nod”, “Pray”, “Sins of the Father”, “I Love (Mimi, Moms, Kev)”.
Least Favorite Tracks: None
Grade: 5/5
Brownsville’s own Ka is back with his first solo project since the samurai inspired “Honor Killed The Samurai”, this time intertwining street life and biblical elements thus giving us the title “Descendants Of Cain”.
Ka’s style is similar to that of DOOM and his close collaborator Roc Marciano who both form the group Metal Clergy. Just think very coded bars about street life and the effects that lifestyle has on Ka and his community. On his earlier album “Grief Pedigree” Ka’s production had a heavy use of drums but later on Ka focused on more dark sample based production depending on the theme of the album. On his collaboration “ Days With Dr.Yen Lo” with Preservation as Dr. Yen Lo, the idea of the album was to create songs with no drums relying on just the rapper and the sample.
Starting with 2013’s “The Nights Gambit” now considered an underground classic, Ka began creating concept like albums set up with sample snippets woven in to complete the theme. Chess was the focus of “The Nights Gambit”, but on his 2016 classic “Honor Killed The Samurai” Ka compared the street code and lifestyle to the way of the samurai. Ka’s lyrics create grim visuals in your mind that compliment the dark cold production of that album. On his last release from 2018 “Orpheus vs. The Sirens”as Hermit and The Recluse focuses on the theme of Ka’s music being used as an escape like Orpheus using his music to distract the Sirens.
The theme of “Descendants Of Cain” is pretty clear with lyrics like “brothers killing brothers, descendants of cain” of one of my standout tracks “Solitude Of Enoch”. Although the theme isn’t as up front like on his past projects, it is coherent enough that you get what Ka is putting down. “Sins Of The Father” features Roc Marciano giving fans a taste of that rumored Metal Clergy album. Ka ends the album on a lighter note, giving thanks to his family and friends a nice change from the usual dark subject matter.
Ever since it dropped all I’ve been listening to is Ka and Roc Marciano so they must be doing something right. Other than Griselda, Kendrick, and Freddie Gibbs no one is on Ka’s level and with another damn near flawless album and probably my favorite project of the year. He is slowly joining the legendary ranks of underground MC’s like DOOM.