After releasing his last album, “The Thief Next to Jesus,” in August, New York rapper Ka has died at the age of 52.

According to a post to him Instagram profile On Monday, October 14, on Saturday, the legend of underground hip-hop died unexpectedly.

“It is with broken hearts that we announce the death of Kaseem Ryan,” the post began. “Born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn, Ka lived a life of service to his city, his community and his music.”

Ka’s profession, which took off in the early 2000s, showed few signs of stopping until his latest release. During his life, i.e. from 1972 to 2024, he released 11 albums, while maintaining his independent underground status.

While many knew Ka for his respect for New York’s underground rap scene, many also knew him as a veteran of the New York City Fire Department. For over 20 years, Ka, who was the first to offer aid on September 11, 2001, rose through the ranks not only in music, but to the rank of captain of the New York Police Department.

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“He leaves an extraordinary legacy as a recording artist, including eleven extraordinary self-released solo albums,” it continues. “Ka left behind a wife, mother and sister. We kindly ask that you respect the privacy of Ka’s family and their loved ones as they mourn this incalculable loss.”

Ka first joined the industry as a founding member of the group Natural Elements in 1993, before forming the duo Nightbreed with the late rapper Kev, The billboard was announced. Ka eventually struck out on his own with acclaimed independent releases including “Grief Pedigree” and “The Night’s Gambit”.

Stylistically, he was known for songs resembling epic poems and albums with multi-layered and sophisticated themes, he says. Vulture.

Ka’s wife, Mimi Valdés, artist, film producer and longtime collaborator of Pharrell Williams, paid tribute to her late husband social mediacalling him her “king”, “hero”, and “best friend”.

“You will at all times be my every little thing because a love like ours lasts ceaselessly. Rest well, my beautiful husband, see you on the other side,” she wrote in the caption of a post containing a portrait of the late rapper.

No explanation for death was given.

NEW YORK (AP) — Muni Longa is perfectly aware of the preciousness of time and its unpredictability. In some ways, the burden of this idea is intertwined with her music with songs like “30s,” “Time Machine” and her mega-hit “Hrs & Hrs.” Life can move at an unforgiving pace, which is why the Grammy winner works as if her profession is on credit.

“Many years ago I had the opportunity to work with Kendrick (Lamar) and I worked with another artist. So I kept pushing it away, asking, “Can we move this session?” This was before he had ‘Pools’… and then he blew up.” recalls the Grammy Award winner. “I understand what it feels like to feel like you’ve missed out or that you won’t get this chance again… I’ll never forget it, ever.”

Carpe diem is all the time on the forefront of Long’s mind, and he recently released an album her latest project “Revenge” the follow-up to her 2022 debut album Public Displays of Affection: The Album, which won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance for “Hrs & Hrs.” Her latest creation survived the sophomore slump. “Made for Me” the viral tender ballad, ambiguously inspired by her son, peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed at primary on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart for seven weeks. (Long revealed this week that it was a massive hit is not eligible for the Grammy Awards resulting from release date).

As R&B has experienced a mainstream resurgence, Long is credited as considered one of the genre’s standard-bearers driving its comeback.

“I can definitely gauge the impact I have on the culture… and not just with a certain demographic. They’re children. They are older women. They’re Christian groups — sometimes they don’t listen to secular music like that, (but) they listen to mine,” Long said. “Sometimes they even sing in the pulpit: ‘I could praise You for hours.’ It’s amazing – even Made for Me too.”

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Intersecting the present era of vibes, party R&B, and the prevailing vibe of melodic rap with a more back-to-basics, feel-on-the-sleeve sound, many fans and critics alike consider that the 14-track project, which features writing from industry titans like The Dream, Jermaine Dupri, Bryan-Michael Cox and Tricky Stewart, and reporting by rap star GloRilla, is considered one of the best R&B releases of the yr. Long believes it too.

“We really put a lot of effort into this music. We cared about instruments and lyrics. This is one of the first times I went back and fixed the lyrics,” said Long, whose “Make Me Forget” topped Billboard’s Adult R&B chart and whose “Ruined Me” entered the highest 10 on the chart this week. “People turn towards light and love… I believe in fairy tales.”

But not all fairy tales end happily. During the album’s release, Long revealed that her nearly ten-year marriage to husband and business partner Raysean Hairston had been tumultuous. Her marital problems, and proving to industry critics that her viral hits and talent were no fluke, set the tone for the project – selecting happiness over bitterness – making it much more personal than her first album.

“Some songs I just can’t sing, and they’re even very difficult to listen to. The first time I cried in the studio while I was making something was on this album and I didn’t like that feeling, so I didn’t do it again,” said the 36-year-old, recalling her debut. “Through therapy and counseling and prayer and meditation and all of that, I’ve developed tools to help me feel my feelings and deal with and process issues that I may have – trauma and drama, as I like to call it. And this album is a way for me to process.”

Long recently wrapped select dates on Chris Brown’s 11:11 tour and is struggling with marital issues. Her goal is peace, she said, adding that a lupus diagnosis doesn’t promote stress. Long emphasizes that she didn’t use the term “divorce,” but “when you talk about ending something, people do it in a lot of different ways.” The talented singer-songwriter spent over 15 years behind the scenes as Priscilla Renea, writing hits for powerhouses reminiscent of Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Ariana Grande and Kelly Clarkson, before changing her name to Muni Long in 2020. But increasingly frustrated with industry politics and unsure of what could be her solo success, Long almost went all the way in which.

“At the end of the day, it’s about not giving up. It’s about not giving up. In the end, time will show you that you get these things because you were prepared,” Long said. “At first I had the right. I thought that because I was talented, people should give me things. And now, on the other hand, I work for everything.”

NEW YORK (AP) – When he won a Grammy Jon Batiste he was a toddler of, say, 9 or 10, moving between musical worlds – through the day he participated in local piano competitions and then “performed in nightclubs in the heart of New Orleans.”

Free from the rigidity of the genre, but additionally committed to exploring it, his tastes intertwined. He found himself transforming canonized classical works into blues or gospel songs, injecting them with a style-independent spirituality became famous. On November 15, Batiste will release his first album of solo piano pieces, a group of similar compositions.

Entitled “Beethoven Blues (Batiste Piano Series, Vol. 1),” the 11-song album finds Batiste in a way collaborating with Beethoven, transforming the German pianist’s immediately recognizable works into something seamless that spans musical stories. It begins with the lead single “Für Elise-Batiste” with a straightforward intro, known all over the world as one of the primary pieces of music that beginners learn on the piano, then transforms the song into a full of life blues.

“My private practice has always been about honoring, of course, but also demystifying the mythology associated with these composers,” he told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of Wednesday’s album announcement.

The album was created through a process called “spontaneous composition”, which he says is a lost art in classical music. It’s improvisation; Batiste sits on the piano and interpolates Beethoven’s masterpieces to make them his own.

“The approach is to think about what the approach would be if we were both talking to Beethoven, but also if Beethoven himself was here today, sitting at the piano?” he explained. “And combining, you know, my approach to artistry and creativity with my imagined approach to how a contemporary Beethoven would approach these works.”

He said there may be a divide in popular understanding of music, where “pristine, preserved and European” genres are seen as more beneficial than “something black, sweaty and improvised.” This album, like most of his work, destroys assumptions.

Contrary to what many might think, Batiste stated that Beethoven’s rhythms were African. “On a basic technical level, he does what African musical ingenuity delivered to the world, which is to play two and three meters at the identical time, almost on a regular basis. He plays in two different time signatures without delay, almost exclusively,” he said.

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“When you hear a drum circle, you know, the African diasporic tradition of playing together in time, you hear a lot of different time signatures playing at the same time,” he continued. “Overall, it combines the entire practice of classical and symphonic music with a deeply African rhythmic practice, making it refined.”

“Beethoven Blues” honors this complexity. “I am deeply repelled by classism and the cultural system we have created that demeans some and elevates others. And ultimately, what appeals to me the most is how excellence transcends race,” he said.

Given their spontaneous nature, when these songs are performed live, they are going to never sound exactly like they do on record and no two sets can be the identical. “If you came and saw me perform these works 10 times in a row, you would hear not only a new version of Beethoven, but also a completely new Beethoven concerto,” he said.

“Beethoven Blues” is the primary in a series of pianos – what number of will there be, in what timeframe and what’s going to they appear like? Well, he keeps his options open.

“The themes of the piano series will be based on, you know, what is current to me at this point in my development, what I am exploring in terms of my artistry. It could be another series based on a composer,” he said.

“Or it could be something else entirely.”