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.
