AKA spins and dances animatedly in his chair as his upcoming album, Mass Country, blares loudly from the studio speakers. We\u2019re in the Johannesburg offices of Sony Music Entertainment Africa, and the excitement and belief the 34-year-old rap star has in these songs is palpable. Many of them are only half-finished.<\/p>\n
He turns from the studio monitor to sing one of his favourite cuts, clapping and waving his hands furiously in the air. Throughout our interview-turned-listening-session, AKA has a broad smile planted on his face \u2013 like a kid in a candy store. \u201cThis one has got that \u2018Fela In Versace\u2019 vibe,\u201d he says, referencing his mammoth 2018 single featuring Nigerian Afrobeats star Kiddominant, still the biggest single of his career.<\/p>\n
The music is full, layered and pleasantly melodious. Like the AKA of old. There\u2019s dance samples aplenty, maskandi and country influences here and there; and most importantly, a big vibe.<\/p>\n
Comeback after a long spell
\nI can hardly blame him for being this excited. Not only is the album sounding great, his comeback single, \u2018Lemons (Lemonade)\u2019, released two weeks back, has been an instant hit. This, after a long spell of inconsistent musical output and considerable personal and professional tumult. Currently, \u2018Lemons\u2019 is jostling with K.O\u2019s record-breaking single \u2018Sete\u2019 at the top of most of the big local charts.<\/p>\n
Following a lengthy stretch in which he was the dominant figure in South African hip hop, and local music in general, AKA has been a shell of himself since his excellent third studio album, 2018\u2019s Touch My Blood. In the interim, he\u2019s released the polarising \u2018F.R.E.E\u2019 with DJ Tira and the late Riky Rick, two lukewarm and somewhat sloppy projects, and a few forgettable singles.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also endured the heartbreaking loss of his fianc\u00e9e, Anele Tembe, and experienced some speed bumps in his business ventures with Cruz Vodka, The Braai Show and Reebok. Despite this, AKA is back firing on all cylinders, and in reference to \u2018Lemons\u2019, says: \u201cNow I\u2019m stronger\u201d<\/p>\n
So what is it that kept AKA going through the dark days? \u201cI think just the love of music is the most important thing,\u201d he says. \u201cI genuinely love what I do. I love sounds, I love creating new sounds and I know it\u2019s a corny thing to say, but if I didn\u2019t love music the way I love music then I wouldn\u2019t really be here. Music is in me, I consume it like 18 hours of the day, just listening to all sorts of shit. In terms of getting through dark times, it\u2019s God, family and music.\u201d<\/p>\n
On \u2018Lemons\u2019, AKA says: \u201cDark day, friends were few, it\u2019s alright\/turned that pain to fuel and survived.\u201d He contextualises this rhyme by explaining how people turned their backs on him during the toughest period of his life. \u201cWhen all the stuff was going down, I just found that a lot of people didn\u2019t want to associate with me, a lot of people had written me off and now, all sorts of people that I haven\u2019t spoken to in like two years are just calling, trying to link up and stuff; and [during the] dark days, friends were few, it\u2019s all right. Turn[\u2026] that pain to fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of the messaging behind the song and lyrics suggest it was conceived and orchestrated as a triumphant comeback song. When I ask if this was intentional and if he hoped that this song would mark his return to the top of his game, he says: \u201cNope.\u201d AKA then talks me through his process. \u201cI don\u2019t work on songs, saying this is my whatever song. I work on music, saying this is a feeling that I have and I need to get this feeling into a sonic form; so I do that and once I get it into a sonic form, I can mould it and shape it like clay,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019ve never gone into [a] studio and said \u2018we need to make a hit\u2019 and made a hit. I just take what\u2019s in my heart or if I listen to an album and I go \u2018what emotion are we missing?\u2019. Maybe then I go into my heart or my mind and I think about things and say \u2018oh we need, we need something to talk about that\u2019. I don\u2019t say \u2018oh we need a dance song like this song so let\u2019s make this song\u2019 cause then there\u2019s no feeling in it. You lose the authenticity and people can pick up if the message is coming from your heart or it\u2019s manufactured.\u201d<\/p>\n
Album\u2019s lead single
\nAKA says he realised \u2018Lemons\u2019 was going to be the album lead single about eight months ago. During the near year-long process of polishing it and making sure it came together cohesively, AKA decided that the song was the perfect platform for him to finally feature Nasty C, the talented globetrotting rapper who many view as his natural prot\u00e9g\u00e9.<\/p>\n
\u201cI first sent him the song a few months ago, he didn\u2019t bite. He thought we needed to find something different. I looked and looked and looked and then one night I was like \u2018Bro trust me, you have to do this one. You just have to.\u2019 Because sonically it\u2019s nothing that he\u2019s ever done before; so in order to put you in a place where you\u2019ve never gone before you need to give me something that you\u2019ve never given anybody before, and I definitely think he did that. In many ways, I think maybe we might\u2019ve opened a can of worms for Nasty C cause I think a lot of people will ask \u2018can you give us more of that?\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labelled by many as the verse of the year, Nasty C delivers a laid-back and memorable cameo appearance that\u2019s full of quotables. AKA credits the role of a producer like himself with creating moments \u2013 by giving direction and pointing an artist in the right direction. \u201cI didn\u2019t really have to direct him that much because he didn\u2019t write it when I was there, but I think I did direct him in terms of \u2018yo man, this is the sound and this is what I want it to be, listen to my verse and listen to my hook\u2019 and then he just took it from there. It\u2019s just a classic song and a classic Nasty C verse,\u201d AKA says.<\/p>\n
When I interviewed Nasty C in 2015 as he was bursting onto the scene, he spoke of how he admired AKA, and how AKA had tried to sign him, but that never quite materialised. Though he remembers this interaction differently to how Nasty does, AKA looks back philosophically at their first meeting and how things eventually unfolded. \u201cIn 2012 or 2013, I met Nasty C in Durban, I think he was about 14 years old, and he performed with me on stage. There\u2019s actually a picture that I posted. I couldn\u2019t sign Nasty C at the time because I didn\u2019t have the facilities to do that, I wasn\u2019t an artist who was signing people.\u201d<\/p>\n
AKA adds that he has no regrets, and he looks forward to seeing Nasty C\u2019s career evolve over the coming years. \u201cI don\u2019t look back like \u2018Oh man, I should\u2019ve signed him\u2019. No, everything worked out just like it should\u2019ve worked out for him; so shout-out to Nasty C, I definitely think you can say, when you look at the story of SA hip hop, he really took the torch and ran with it. He\u2019s that next legend in the making.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AKA’s comeback single ‘Lemons (Lemonade)’, released two weeks back, has been an instant hit. It didn\u2019t take much convincing for rapper AKA to agree to play some of his album Mass Country. He\u2019s itching for the world to hear it, too; and they should.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":19454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,31],"tags":[7,14,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-19457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-music","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"yoast_head":"\n