Born in the Jungle
Out the womb running.
Better move youngin’, predators is soon coming
The first notes of “Jungle” hit me every time I hear it. Perhaps, because he speaks to, and from, the fabric of life.
Kaseem “Ka” Ryan was born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The neighborhood of Brownsville is home to Mike Tyson, The RZA, Henry Hill, Sean Price, Jo Jo Corrozo — amongst many.
It is the school of Hardknocks.
I, on the other hand, was born in Akure, a a small city tucked away in Southwest Nigeria. Ka’s struggle and mine were nothing alike. Yet, when I hear this song — it feels like it was one in the same.
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The track, Jungle, gives a poetic imagery of — a divine insight to Ka’s Urban scenery in his formative years. In every way, it is nothing like you’ve ever felt, seen or heard.
But oddly enough, you may relate to it.
Song for song, Ka’s Bars on on this LP sound like quietly admitted crimes recorded in a wiretapped sound booth
- Anthony Fantano, via The Night’s Gambit ALBUM Review
It kind of pokes out at you — but only to show you the scars. As much as you’d rather not see, you must come to term with these wounds.
For, they are the very price of life. The price of survival.
