‘Mass Country’ will feature on Spotify’s billboard in New York’s Times Square. Picture: Twitter
Cape Town – AKA’s new album, “Mass Country”, is due to be released on global streaming platform Spotify on Friday.
“Mass Country” was produced and completed before the South African rapper, real name Kiernan Forbes, was murdered in Durban.
The album is a mix of local sounds and features a host of South Africa’s hip hop talent including Khuli Chana, Blxckie, Nadia Nakai, Emtee, Yanga Chief, Sjava and more.
His mother, Lynn Forbes, said: “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.”
Warren Bokwe, Spoitify’s lead for music strategy and operations in sub-Saharan Africa, said: “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."
“Mass Country” will feature on Spotify’s billboard in New York’s Times Square.
This billboard has also previously showcased other South African artists like Kabza de Small and Sha Sha, providing a platform to share homegrown talent with international audiences.
Spotify’s data shows that while South Africa makes up the largest single market for AKA’s music at 38%, the vast majority of listeners (62%) are streaming from elsewhere in the world.
The UK , US, Sweden and Germany round out the top 5 markets for his music.
Since his murder earlier this month, streams of AKA’s music have increased by 743% on Spotify.
AKA began his music career in high school with rap trio Entity, alongside Vice Versa and Greyhound.
In 2011, AKA broke onto the music scene as a solo act with his debut album, “Altar Ego“.
Spotify data tracks his meteoric rise and growing popularity with each new album.
Levels“, his sophomore album, was able to reach the 1 million streams mark on Spotify in 19 months.
His third studio album, “Touch My Blood“, released in 2018, raced to a million streams in just 11 months.
AKA’s songs feature on over 630 000 user-generated playlists on Spotify.
“All Eyes on Me” is AKA’s most popular song to be playlisted, and his first song to hit 1 million streams on Spotify.
The song features Nigerian artist Burna Boy and long-time collaborators Da L.E.S and JR. “Fela in Versace”, from “Touch My Blood”, features on over 128 000 playlists.
“Lemons (Lemonade)” featuring Nasty C, the first single from the upcoming “Mass Country”, is already AKA’s third-most playlisted song, despite having only been released in September.
Cape Times
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