Murdered SA rapper's Mass Country' album is a mixed bagAfter AKA's death, his family decided to go ahead and release the Mass Country album on schedule as a tribute.
by The Conversation
24-02-2023 12:10
in Entertainment
South African rapper AKA Kiernan Forbes. Image: The Conversation.
Just weeks before being gunned down in what appeared to be a hit, the South African rapper AKA (Kiernan Forbes) had announced he was ready to release his new album, Mass Country. After his death, his family decided to go ahead and release the album on schedule as a tribute.
--
At his memorial service on 17 February in Johannesburg, fellow rapper and frequent collaborator Yanga Chief delivered a remarkable speech. In it, he revealed much of AKA's creative process. Yanga disclosed that AKA was aware that it took an army of different elements to create a hit . In other words, the search for sonic gold was painstaking, deliberate and all engrossing. AKA gave what it took to find the right hooks, beats and personnel.
ALSO READ: Mass Country': AKA on Anele's death, treatment from Tembes
Mass Country album Mass Country, the rapper's fourth album, could have been a much worse offering without its multiple features and collabs. Before its much anticipated release, AKA had been proclaiming he wasn't merely a hip-hop mainstay but also a pop music juggernaut. There's some truth to this self-assessment.
--
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by AKA (@akaworldwide)
-- Mass Country is a sometimes uneasy assortment of genres, moods and sensibilities slapped over a wide range of beats, production styles and talent.
Outshone by collaborators For his creative and production crew, AKA cast his net far and wide. A-list South African rappers Khuli Chana, Blxckie, Emtee, Nadia Nakai, Nasty C, Sjava, Yanga Chief, Nigerian top notch producer KDDO and many others joined in the collective effort to create what was intended to be a masterpiece, or at least a landmark album.
There are just a few tracks in which AKA performs largely by himself and when he does, it's mainly about ego boosting. In Mbuzi (freestyle) he sings his own praises and affirms his spot atop the hip-hop pile. He takes shots at rivals and detractors, reminding them that he's cut from a different cloth . But in this exciting cut, South African rapper Thato Soul blows AKA off his own joint. Thato, in this case, is the undisputed beast and not AKA.
--
AKA does better in Amapiano, a Latin-influenced track with help from Mozambican hip-hop artist Laylizzy and upcoming rapper Weathrd. Once again, his collaborators lift the joint out of mediocrity. AKA delivers his chorus without autotune, which is rare for him. And yet again, AKA assumes the role of passenger on his own cruise while his collaborators are the pilots.
With such an amazing cast of artists and run of features, it is hard to deliver a dud. But how much of the album's creative vision is AKA's? The album often feels like he's throwing darts at a board, hoping that something will stick. This makes this suite of tracks rather unwieldy.
Mixed bag album Anxiety is another self-absorbed and derivative assemblage of lyrics and hooks spread over somewhat infectious beats. This is obviously the work of his impressive producer, Thabo Nelson Tota.
On Company, the talented KDDO once again delivers the goods and hurls AKA to higher creative levels. Here, he delivers his verses with lan and some degree of conviction. Both artists stress their playboy credentials over KDDO's smooth, warm beats and production. This is the type of production value and quality that made AKA's previous hits such as Fela in Versace and Jika so irresistible.
In The Last Time, AKA's tone and sensibilities are slightly more reflective, his ego in ashes and not controlled by a surfeit of testosterone.
In Crown, South African rapper Emtee joins him in asserting his place at the top of the hip hop game and in calling out for concomitant blessings. The heavy R&B tones sound somewhat mature and well executed.
So this is indeed a mixed bag of beats, visions, influences and talent.
Claiming the crown nonetheless AKA was nonetheless motivated to claim his crown in the game. He wasn't about to accomplish this alone. And so, adopting his customary approach, he enlisted all the certified hit makers he knew to assist him.
AKA was never the most technically proficient rapper. He also admitted unusually for him that he didn't possess the vocal prowess of South African jazz artist Judith Sephuma. But he discovered an approach that worked exceedingly well for him. His winning plan was simple: cultivate talent wherever he could, draw them into his creative orbit, feed them with the formative mists of his vision, and hope chance blesses their efforts with success.
ALSO READ: Mass Country': AKA and Nadia get steamy on Dangerous' [listen]
On this last offering, it seems all his collaborators were willing to go the extra mile in serving and nurturing his complicated - or is it conflicted - vision. It is also a testament to his extraordinary tenacity and leadership qualities. He apparently bent this diverse gallery of talented artists to his will in reaching heights that his own talents could not take him to.
Article by: Sanya Osha. Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities in Africa, University of Cape Town
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
CLICK HERE TO REAS MORE ARTICLES BY THE CONVERSATION
STUDY ABROAD: Study in Australia for an all-around experience. READ MORE HERE!
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Murdered SA rapper's Mass Country' album is a mixed bagAfter AKA's death, his family decided to go ahead and release the Mass Country album on schedule as a tribute.
