Zimbabwean-South African rapper Nadia Nakai has plumbed the depths of romantic sorrows and the archives of painful memories with her latest song “Never Leave”. With the help of Capetonian hip-hop artist KashCPT, Nakai chafed at the wound of her intimate relationship with slain rapper Kiernan “AKA” Forbes, dedicating the song to him as a tribute aptly dropped on what would’ve been his birthday weekend.
“Never Leave” complements the release of “Back In”, a diametrical opposite single which saw the SA Hip Hop Award-winning star flex her emotional resilience and finding her bearings as a musician and as a woman navigating the world without the love of her life. Steered by low-spirited piano keys and an understated bass, the self-effacing production takes on the shape of a traditional but watered down hip-hop sound tempered with touches of neo-soul and R&B.
Minimalism sets the stage for both Nadia and Kash, with the former lacing her pair of verses with soul-rending yet simplistic bars of her feelings about the death of AKA and the difficulty of crossing the waters of grief just to get to the other side of a new week. Although the remembrance of Kiernan serves as a thematic anchor, the song is an internal portrait of a troubled spirit still grappling with reality.
Reconciling herself – or the effort to do so – to the understanding that Kiernan is no more reveals itself in bargaining (“I’d give all that I got to have you back”), a sense of perennial pain (“Got a scar that’s on my heart that can’t be mended”), and denial (“Time to time, I still hit your message / hit your dial voicemail”). More than about the celebration of their relationship, “Never Leave” is an ode of a lover still holding on to what could’ve been on the inside.
Even if Kiernan might never hear “Never Leave”, his posthumous gift is a object of solace not only to Nadia, but his loved ones still searching for specks of closure in the fragments of glory Forbes shed in his illustrious time under the sun.
Gut-wrenching as the song is, its emotional richness and candid nature testifies to a life well lived by AKA, a cause for celebration and thanksgiving for having experienced SupaMega.
Listen to “Never Again”:
