El-P and Killer Mike Defend Ka After NY Post Attempts to Out Him as a Firefighter

Run The Jewels are presenting a united front against The New York Post. Rappers El-P and Killer Mike have both voiced their outrage with the newspaper and its writer, Susan Edelman, today (Aug. 22) for publishing what they refer to as a "hit piece" on New York firefighter Captain Kaseem Ryan. Ryan is a veteran firefighter who commands Engine Co. 235 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn and moonlights as a rapper under the stage moniker Ka, also known as Brownsville Ka. The piece says that Ryan leads a double life as a FDNY member and underground rapper, often denouncing the NYPD in his raps. But according to El-P and Killer Mike, the rhetoric in the Post piece does nothing more than try to paint Ka as a thug.

"Welp I'll never give another interview to the New York post again. After how they did Ka I can't imagine any rapper talking to them again," started El-P in a Twitter rant. "Before writing a hit piece its good to ask yourself: 'has the man I'm trying to destroy saved more lives than me?'"

Like his bandmate, Killer Mike took his frustrations to social media, posting a lengthy review of Edelman's report on Instagram.

"I salute Capt. Kaseem Ryan for being a real life Super hero who saves our lives by day and Gives us words to comfort our pain and anger at night," captioned Mike with a screenshot of the piece. "Susan is slime for what she wrote and inferred but she has to live with that. From the world of rap & the real world Thank U Capt. Reed aka Ka!"

Aside from saving lives, Ka has dropped four solo albums in his career and made an appearance on GZA's 2008 album Pro Tools. His latest LP, Honor Killed the Samurai, is already in the running for one of the best rap albums of the year.

Check out Run The Jewels' defense of Ka below.