New Riky Rick album to be released a day after 10-year anniversary of ‘Family Values’

Riky Rick’s posthumous album Boss Zonke Forever will be released just a day after a decade of his memorable project Family Values came out in April 2015.

Rick’s wife, Bianca Naidoo, said the family has sat with the music for a long while now and she said she was guided by feeling. “I always go about feeling of when is the right time and it’s been a while.”

Riky’s family made the announcement on 5FM’s 5 Take Over, hosted by Jodell Tantij, over the weekend.

Rikhado Makhado, or Riky Rick as he was fondly known by his fans, lost his battle with mental illness and took his own life in 2022.

This past Sunday marked three years since Riky’s passing.

Family Values is Riky’s only studio album. It was released on 3 April 2015 and includes hit tracks such as Boss Zonke, Amantombazane, and Nafukwa.

ALSO READ: Riky Rick’s last words: ‘I wish I was stronger, please forgive me’

Timely release

Naidoo said the late rap artist and all-round pop culture figure had put the music together.

“We just added or mixed and included features that we thought were important.  The last few weeks have just been a feeling of ‘we’re ready’. It’s almost like him saying ‘come on now’.”

She said the release date was intended to be later in April, but everything made sense for the album to be released on the chosen date, which coincidentally is the Family Values anniversary.

“It made sense that it’s the fourth of April, falls on a Friday and we have to drop music on a Friday, the way DSPs work,” averred Naidoo.

DSPs refer to Digital Service Providers such as Spotify and Apple Music, which are music streaming services.

On Youth Day in 2023 The Riky Rick Foundation released a song titled Stronger, which was recorded using Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated from Riky’s words taken from his social media posts.

The significance of the song is that it speaks to mental health and well-being. The song itself was put together by Riky’s long-time collaborators Ganja Beatz, Audio Militia, and lyricist Lebo Mochudi.

The song and campaign won a Silver Lion at the Cannes 2024 Awards.

ALSO READ: Riky Rick Foundation wins at Cannes Lions Awards

Riky’s lessons

Reflecting on his life, his mother, Louisa Zondo, said what remains significant about him are the lessons that Riky would give.

“The lessons were enormous. He would give them such simplicity, and the one that stays, and I even refer to it in the book that I subsequently wrote about life. Was that we should always take the moment to calm our emotions, understanding that we don’t know what the next person is going through,” shared Zondo.

In 2023, Zondo published Dearest MaRiky: A Mother’s Journey through Grief, Trauma and Healing, where she speaks to her son in a series of letters and gradually unearths the words to express her love for him and the pain of losing him.

“There are far too many,” said Naidoo when asked about lessons she took from her husband.

“I think it’s the amount of effort and time he put into us as a family, even though he had such a busy schedule. If he went out and did a gig, best believe on a Sunday, he’s waking up to take the kids to do something,” said Naidoo, who was accompanied by their daughter Jordyn.

She said the rapper wasn’t necessarily a strict dad but wanted things a certain way. “If it wasn’t like that, it would frustrate him,” she said.

NOW READ: ‘Dearest MaRiky’: Mother honours Riky Rick with book of letters