AKA 'Mass Country' will be released on 24 February. Picture: Instagram @akaworldwide
Kiernan ‘AKA’ Forbes knew what he wanted to accomplish on his last album Mass Country and his vision for the album continues to be shared after his murder.
AKA’s team, VTH, The T Effect and Sony Music Entertainment Africa decided to go ahead with the release of the album as intended by the late rapper.
A new single, Company featuring KIDDO was released last Friday, and in anticipation of Mass Country release this week, his creative team has continued to share his wishes of releasing the music whilst he was alive.
The track list of the studio album was released on Tuesday, and it includes features of his partner Nadia Nakai, Blxckie for the song called Dangerous, it also includes Yanga Chief with a title song called Amapiano ad his previously released singles Paradise and Lemons to Lemonade.
In a video of the rapper in a music studio, his seen listening to Mass Country and is clearly amped-up, AKA says Mass Country was for South Africa.
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“It’s literally called Mass Country, for the masses of the country… There is only one audience that I pandering to and that is South Aaa, South Aaaa… And listen, we running music right now.”
AKA was referring to the country in slang terms as South Aaa widely used in conversational settings. In an interview on Hip Hop veteran Silkour’s podcast Unplug, AKA said the album was heavily inspired by traditional local sounds.
“Mass Country, Maskandi, you know that’s kind of the play on it. That’s a nod to the fact there’s going to be South African traditional sounds on there, but also laced with Pop, laced with a bit of Kwaito influence, Hip-Hop… you know how it goes,” he said.
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“They [Forbes family] are choosing to continue with the release of Mass Country album on the 24th of February as planned.
“In the last two years, Mass Country has become AKA’s entire world. The Supa Mega constantly kept the album release momentum and anticipation high,” their statement read, giving a reason why they decided to go ahead with the release.
Co-executive producer and manager for the album, Nivo, said they were blessed to work with the Fela in Versace hitmaker.
He added the rapper worked very hard on the album and put his all into it.
Nivo said AKA did have the opportunity to approve how Mass Country will be rolled out and marketed.
“He approved the elements, direction and vision of the release.”
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