AKA is a South African mainstream rap artist. He was born in Cape
Town on January 28, 1988. AKA’s birth name is Kiernan Jordan
Forbes. The rapper rose to fame after having joined a group with his
two school mates. The rap group arose in 2002 and managed to garner a
large number of successes; having entered South Africa’s music
chart with a series of different released singles.
After some time the rap group whose name was Entity, began to have
some issues from within the grouping. All three members expressed
different visions, different plans for the future, and various
different solo projects. Entity came to an end in 2006, with all
three members forging different paths.
AKA continued his pursuit of music. He decided to retrieve himself
from the world stage for some time and focus on working behind the
scenes. AKA took some time for himself to learn the ins and outs of
engineering. The rapper then proceeded to create his very own
production company in 2007 alongside two colleagues named Buks and
Kamza.
After some time producing, AKA sought to pursue his own solo rap
career, and so he did. After his debut album garnered a huge level of
success within his country he became a sort of poster child for South
African Rap. He went on to receive various prestigious awards the
most prestigious of all having been the ” Male Artist of the Year
Award,” at the South African Music Awards. The South African Music
Awards being the countries equivalent to The Grammy's. After so much
success AKA dubbed the name, “Prince of South African Rap.”
Adding to his list of achievements AKA has also had the privilege of
opening up for Kanye West, Big Sean, Snoop Dogg, and Kendrick Lamar.
In
2009 AKA ventured for a solo career with hits like "Mistakes",
"In My Walk" and "Do It" with the latter making
it to number 1 on the South African 5FM Top
40. He
won Metro FM Music Awards for "Best Newcomer", "Best
Hip Hop" as a solo act and "Best Produced Album" for
his debut Altar
Ego. It
is then that he was dubbed "Prince of South African Rap" by
one of the national newspapers. He
also won "Best Dressed man" during the GQ Awards in South
Africa alongside Oscar
Pistorius.
In
2011 AKA's song "Victory Lap" won Channel O's Most Gifted
Hip-Hop Video at the 7th annual Channel
O Music Video Awards and
at the 18th South African Music Awards AKA was awarded Male Artist of
the Year and Best Street Urban Music Album.
AKA
has opened for Kanye
West, Snoop
dogg, Rick
Ross, 2
Chainz, Big
Sean and Kendrick
Lamar in
their South African tours. He
has won many awards including "Best Street Urban Music Album"
and "Male Artist of the Year" at the 18th South
African Music Awards (SAMA)
South African equivalent to the Grammys.
In
late 2014 rapper AKA signed a multi-album deal with Sony Music
through its new local urban label Sound African recordings. Executive
head of A&R for Sony, Zakes Bantwini made the announcement
through their platform. ‘We’re excited to add AKA’s illustrious
career to our stable. We are excited about AKA’s growth prospects
in Africa and beyond.’ The Sony Music/AKA partnership is the key
catalyst to change the business and face of Music across Africa,
especially in the key areas of quality, distribution and content
management’. In
June 2015, AKA's sophomore album Levels was
certified Gold, by the Recording
Industry of South Africa,
for shipments of over 20,000 copies domestically.
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