The A.K.A Review

Alright, listen, seat back relax and allow me to kick some knowledge. You see, there is a rapper and THEN there is rapper, to delineate further: there former is anyone that can jot down a dope sixteen and spit it (hell, you don’t even have to jot it down, if you can spit it off the top of your head like a New Era cap, that’s even sicker. The latter is A.K.A. He is rapper’s rapper, the South African answer to Drake, captain of the in-crowd, the poster boy of the new cool. He is many things that he is also known as (which explicates why he calls himself A.KA. if you didn’t get the memo). Real name: Kiernan Forbes. Anyway, I had not given audience to his anticipated debut album Alter Ego until recently, well? Not until the day after the South African Music Awards to be exact. Not because I am hater or a skeptic but because I wanted dude to prove himself just in case he turned out to be whack and good at nothing but talking smack. And proving himself would take more than radio interviews, television appearances and magazine covers. That off course he got in abundance, thanks to publicist PR guru Farah Fortune, Head Honcho also threw their weight behind him and then there was the Show Love team to plus on that. But to me that was still nothing but hype that I wasn’t buying into, meaning I was Ray Charles to all that, I was thinking sold out concerts, proliferating record sales and awards, especially a SAMA. My reasonable reluctance was due to the fact that A.KA used to be 1/3 of the now defunct rap pack called Entity, and that entity wasn’t so much of an entity when it was all said and done. So you see, he still had a mammoth of a task to win me over. Even when his singles (All I know, Bang featuring Khuli Chana of Morafe fame, and the star studded Victory Lap) were topping the local charts, winning him groupies and veneration, I wasn’t listening. However April 31st came. Hip Hop Pantsula tweeted: If you are still not an @akaworldwide fan, watch the SAMAs tonight. You will be converted. #ConfessedFan. Wa Rocka San. I pulled back into my dusty orange striped couch, glass of red wine in hand, cigarette in another and I kept my eyes glued to the telly that night. And I was blown away, I sipped my Shiraz in awe as A.K.A tore the stage apart along side Jack-Out-Of-The-Box-Parow, his energy on stage is apodictically electrifying. I was heartened by the glint in his eyes that said he is passionate and committed to his art. So first thing the morning after the SAMAs ,I dashed to the nearest music store still in my slippers and I had a good listen. Now I refuse to review the album because mostly likely you’ve already heard it and you have already formulated concrete opinions on that album but I’ll say this much: Snakes and Ladders is a stand out track, so is Reign featuring Buffalo Soldier. Homeboy is aware of his influence on pop culture and honestly he deserves all that glow and all that glory. Plus he has been busy: A.K.A was the supporting act for the 2010 Rick Ross concert in Cape Town, plus he performed at the ESPN 2010 Annual Basketball Event in Pretoria. He was also the Official MC and Host of the MTV Base MAMA 2010 Private Media Event while performing at the Rize Concert in JHB as supporting act. So, yeah, “he is a beast, he is a problem”. Now I am done.