AKA’s Album Mass Country Is Set To Be SupaMega. AKA‘s latest record, Mass Country, is a farewell present to his fans and a love letter to South Africa. It is now available on the international streaming service Spotify.
AKA’s Album Mass Country Is Set To Be SupaMega.
Before the tragic passing of South African rapper Kiernan Forbes, Mass Country was created and finished. It is clear that this song was made for his South African admirers thanks to a blend of regional sounds and features from a number of the country’s hottest Hip Hop artists, including Khuli Chana, Blxckie, Nadia Nakai, Emtee, Yanga Chief, Sjava, and more. AKA is heard stating “there is only one audience I am pandering to” in a video that was recorded while he was in the studio.
His mother, Lynn Forbes says: “Kiernan was so proud of Mass Country. As a family it was a pleasure to see his music’s evolution over the years. He played us this album over and over again. We’re happy the world finally gets to hear it.”
“AKA was one of the few people who could be classified as a South African Hip Hop megastar and we are honoured to be able to continue to share his music with his fans both in South Africa and all over the world,” says Warren Bokwe, Lead Music Strategy and Operations for Spotify Sub-Saharan Africa.
Spotify will accomplish this, among other things, by showcasing Mass Country on a sign in Times Square, New York. Other South African artists, including Kabza de Small and Sha Sha, have also previously been featured on this billboard, offering a stage for showcasing homegrown talent to an international audience.
According to Spotify statistics, although AKA’s music has its biggest single market in South Africa (38%), the overwhelming majority (62%) of listeners are streaming from other countries. The top 5 markets for his songs are the UK, USA, Sweden, and Germany.
“Spotify is a platform dedicated to supporting African artists and providing them with a place to grow their global fanbases, so this kind of data is a testament to AKA’s talent and the power of streaming,” Bokwe says.
The number of streams of AKA’s music on Spotify has grown by 743% since his passing earlier this month.
Along with Vice Versa and Greyhound, AKA started his musical journey in high school as a member of the rap group Entity. AKA made his solo début in 2011 with the release of his album Altar Ego. His meteoric ascent and increasing popularity with each new album are being tracked by Spotify data. In just 19 months, Levels, his sophomore record, had amassed 1 million Spotify streams. Touch My Blood, his third studio record, which debuted in 2018, quickly reached a million streams in just 11 months.
Over 630 000 user-made Spotify playlists contain tracks by AKA. The song All Eyes on Me is AKA’s most frequently played music and the first of hiss to reach one million Spotify streams. Longtime collaborators Da L.E.S and JR are joined by Nigerian musician Burna Boy on the tune. Touch My Blood’s Fela in Versace is played on more than 128 000 tracks. Despite only having been published in September of last year, Lemons (Lemonade), the first single from the upcoming Mass Country album and featuring Nasty C, is already AKA’s third most played song.
