AKA’s posthumous album Mass Country released

The album comes out exactly two weeks after AKA was shot dead at a restaurant in the coastal town of Durban in the KwaZulu-Natal province. CCTV footage of the incident shows that the artist was assassinated for reasons still unknown.

With a mix of local sounds, Mass Country features local artists including Emtee, Nasty C, Khuli Chana, Sjava, Musa Keys, Blxckie and Yanga Chief, as well as Gyakie (Ghana) and Kiddominant (Nigeria).

“Kiernan was so proud of Mass Country,” AKA’s mom, Lynn Forbes, said. “As a family it was a pleasure to see his music’s evolution over the years. He played us this album over and over again. We’re happy the world finally gets to hear it.”

Fellow SA rapper Cassper Nyovest wrote on social media: “Happy Mass Country Day. Big love to the Megacy.”

Spotify sub-Saharan Africa’s lead for music strategy and operations, Warren Bokwe, said: “AKA was one of the few people who could be classified as a South African hip hop megastar and we are honoured to be able to continue to share his music with his fans both in South Africa and all over the world.

“One of the ways that Spotify will do this is by featuring Mass Country on a billboard in New York’s Times Square. This billboard has also previously showcased other South African artists like Kabza de Small and Sha Sha, providing a platform to share homegrown talent with international audiences.”

Data from Spotify shows that while South Africa represents the largest single market for AKA’s music at 38%, the vast majority of listeners (62%) come from elsewhere in the world. The UK, US, Sweden and Germany round out the top five markets for his music.

AKA’s music streams on Spotify have increased by 743% following his death. In 2011, he broke onto the music scene as a solo act with his debut album Altar Ego. Spotify data has tracked his meteoric rise and growing popularity with each new album. Levels, his sophomore album, was able to reach the 1 million streams mark on Spotify in 19 months. In just 11 months after its release in 2018, Touch My Blood reached a million streams.

Over 630 000 Spotify users have created playlists featuring AKA’s songs. His first million streams on Spotify came from ‘All Eyes on Me’, his most popular playlisted song. The song features Nigerian artist Burna Boy and long-time collaborators Da L.E.S and JR. ‘Fela in Versace’, from Touch My Blood, appears on over 128 000 playlists. ‘Lemons (Lemonade)’ featuring Nasty C, the first single off Mass Country, is already AKA’s third most playlisted song, despite having only been released in September last year.

Born Kiernan Jarryd Forbes on 28 January 1988, AKA began his music career in high school with rap trio Entity, alongside Vice Versa and Greyhound. He worked with local artists including Nasty C, Anatii, Khuli Chana, K.O., Yanga, Da L.E.S, ProKid and JR. His success continued with the release of albums such as Levels (2014), Touch My Blood (2018), Bhovamania (2020) and Be Careful What You Wish For (2017) with Anatii. AKA won several accolades at the South African Music Awards, African Muzik Magazine Awards, MTV Africa Music Awards, South African Hip Hop Awards, Metro FM Music Awards, Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards and the Namibia Annual Music Awards.