Aegis

his music making game makes up for the rest so y'all better stfu

that hook on Circa

second half of this album is on another level

How long is the album? To anyone who already has access to it

(talking about the runtime just fyi)

45 min

Where is link

album is so good

also how the f*** did he get James Earl Jones to narrate the album??

that was his cousin, probably an easy ask when he was alive

This music deserved a better cover man

I think I'm gonna go insane if I try and figure out what other song uses the The Birth of Medicine sample cause it's on the tip of my tongue

This guy is a fckn genius

you know it’s a navy blue album cause it’s a 10/10 and the cover looks like s***

"When you no longer hear me, I'm free. I'm from the field, make use of my shield" So f***ing beautiful RIP Ka man

album name to album cover though

Album is incredible, but Navy desperately needs to hire a creative team . His album artwork is usually bad

This album is a cheat code

Malik Abdul Rahmaan speaks on Ka & Producing Circa

instagram.com/p/DZND6xjkZ5-/?img_index=1&igsh=MXRpYnJxNGNheDFleg==

Navy Blue’s ‘Sir Render’ just dropped and i produced ‘Circa’ featuring MENTION=354002Brown/MENTIONsvilleka. thank you and much, much love to my Brother sageelsesser for making this moment happen. of the music that i’ve created over the years, i’m most proud of this track. first, cause it was never easy to get Ka on a song. that Brotha was notoriously selective about who he worked with and what he wrote to. but secondly, the release of this track, on this album, sees him fulfill a promise that he made to me over a decade ago. i love you and miss you, Kaseem, and i am eternally grateful to have known you.

i was just building with my Brother benhixon while in Detroit two weeks ago about Ka, his character, our individual relationships with him and the effect he had us. like Ben, i used to shop records to Ka. i first met him through @yamashefo while working for @a1recordshop back in 2013 or 2014 and i’d slide him samples. a stack of records here. a 45 or two there. of all the customers that came through that shop’s doors, he was the only one i kept a stash for. just as Ben did at @academyrecords a decade later.

Ka wasn’t loud. he moved quiet. dignified. but his words, his demeanor, had weight. dude was thoro. a king. they don’t make em like him anymore. one day he came in the shop and thanked me for some Brazilian records i’d passed him and let me know that something from the stack made it into an album he was working on. ‘yo Malik…if you ever need a verse from me, i got you,’ he told me.

over the next several years, i passed him a few tracks. not many. but a few solid joints that ended going to other people because he passed on them. he always answered his phone or texted back but i didn’t want to be a nuisance. and he admitted to me that he was picky with his beats. he was going to keep his promise, but it was clear i’d have to earn it.

fast forward a decade. Sage took the train up to visit me in Western Massachusetts, where i’d lived since late 2019. we mainly hiked. took some long walks in the crisp spring air. and i let him sleep a lot, as folks from the city tend to do when they visit. his final evening he taps me and says he wants to make some music.

i think i went through a couple dozen sketches before playing what would become ‘Circa’. it was a simple chop + loop and i was actually looking for something else.

when i started to play the next idea, Sage asked me to go back to the previous one. he started writing and i started reworking it. i didn’t do anything drastic. just a little reordering of the chops before reaching for a few other records for some cymbals, hi hats and some vocal samples. i didn’t think too deeply into it or even think the track would serve as anything but an exercise to say we actually did something during his visit. but after recording his vocals, Sage looked at me and said, ‘you know who’d sound good on this? Ka!’ ‘dawg, you know how many times i’ve tried to work with him?!,’ i shot back hahaha. we saved the track, he took the Amtrak back to the city the next day and that was that.

i completely forgot about it until a couple of months later, when he texted me a picture of Ka in the booth at alanthechemist’s studio along with a ‘we did it!’. circle complete. Circa was born. Sage’s cousin, James Earl Jones, speaking at the beginning of the track (and narrating the entire album) was the extra added Blessing. thank you again for making one of my biggest dreams come to life, Sage. rest well and in Power, Kaseem and James Earl. eternal love

SAGE & ARMAND HAMMER PLS KILL ME

Bouta spin this in the whip

james earl jones is his cousin??? that's crazy also crazy ka did his verse at alc's studio

Track 1 and this is already smackin hard