Jika hitmaker AKA has released his third single Prada, taken off his anticipated fourth solo LP Mass Country that is due to drop next month.
Prada sees Forbes link up with long-time collaborator Khuli Chana to dig up a song that defies the proverb that an old dog can’t be taught old tricks.
And with the musical complexion of the Mzansi music landscape having changed to smile on amapiano, AKA exploits his greatest ability of moving into this fickle industry with his penchant of twisting different genres into one unique sound. On the Nasty C-assisted Lemons (Lemonade), he straddles the line between rap and piano, realigning himself with the current wave.
Prada behaves like a hybrid that can’t decide what it truly wants to be, yet it has the confidence of a track that knows what species it belongs to in the musical taxonomy. In it, there are traces of amapiano in the shape of log drums, a lively tempo common in pop music, and the glue of AKA’s trademark rap-sung cadence.
With lush production from his Levels and Touch My Blood days, Prada is a mix of Congratulate, One Time, and Jealousy from a performance and sonic perspective.
What would an AKA song be with the egoistic panache? “You got to buy me Prada / don’t buy me flowers” frames Supa Mega as an important somebody who is perfectly content, needing no praise or appreciation from anyone (as per the “flowers” reference).
Lavish life has been the underpinning of AKA’s music since Levels, and on “Prada”, he draws from the same shallow well as heard when he says: “These girls wanna have blessings / these don’t want no teddies / guap for the mami and pedi / soft with the Louis and Fendi”. While his worldview is two-dimensional and leaves a lot to be desired, it’s his cockiness and surefooted delivery that leaves one with no choice but to nod, even when in total disagreement: another one of his superpowers.
Khuli’s feature slides in during the latter part of the joint, and the MotswakOriginator rolls back the hands of time thanks to a sublime tribute to his plus-one on the song. “Sky to the ground till we hit the floor”, Chana raps, referencing their hit single “I Want It All”released in 2011 on AKA’s Altar Ego album, alongside Pro.
Running with the baton of luxury-themed rap, the Mahikeng powerhouse boasts of rejuvenation in life (“life begins at forty”) and wealth (“I’m sayin’ goodbyes to the old me / bophelo bo-soft ha ke soli / cheques clear now we checked in”). With his frequent go-to guy KayGizm in the studio with him and AKA, the Lost in Time (2012) spirit came through.
Listen to Prada here:
Prada does well in opening the portal for AKA to travel to his past self. With Khuli by his side, an artist who has also experienced a revival of his own in the game, Supa Mega wasn’t only able to collect the best pieces of his prime years but to also funnel that soul that worked wonders for him into the skin of newer and more relevant sounds. If Prada is a promise of what Mass Country will sound like as a whole, the album could be (emphasis on could be) AKA’s most futuristic album since Levels.
