The Brooklyn rapper and producer Ka spent Saturday, the day he released his new album Honor Killed The Samurai, on the sidewalk outside the empty East Village storefront that, at least until a few months ago, was the music-dork mecca Other Music. It's something he does every time he releases an album. He emerges from what I've always imagined as the dank basement studio where he spends most of his time, and he brings a few cardboard boxes of his most recent album. It's the rare moment where he can shake hands and share eye contact with the people entranced by his entrancing music. On Twitter, Ka wrote, "Going out on album release day connecting w/ people is my way of saying thank you for still listening & not giving up on me when I go silent." It's an admirable impulse, but it's also a ritual. And listening to Ka's music, you get the sense that he enjoys the ritual -- that this is a man who lives by ritual, who has organized his life into rhythms, the same way the samurai warriors who serve as the new album's inspiration might've once done.