Family, friends and fans of Hip Hop superstar Kiernan “AKA” Forbes paid a moving tribute in a memorial service held in Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on Friday evening.
AKA was murdered a week ago outside a popular restaurant in Durban alongside his close friend and former manager Tebello ‘Tibz’ Motsoane
The ceremony was a celebratory event with many of his colleagues taking to the stage to perform many of his tracks where they were featured.
But the big moment came when his mother Lynn Forbes narrated about the kind of a person her son was.
“Today, a week ago my heart was shattered into countless pieces, but today and any other day going forward, it won’t be about me. The rest of our family and friends, it will be about the Megacy (AKA fans are called) as our broader family I believe is what Kiernan would have wanted, because Kiernan belonged to all of us, across the world, Africa and his beloved South Africa,” she said.
Forbes said AKA was so patriotic to the point where he travelled everywhere with the South African flag.
“He took the (South African) flag everywhere he went. Kiernan’s body has been taken from us, just his body, it has been taken from this world in the most brutal way, but I do understand just like me and the family, you must be feeling an amount of anger, incredible pain and be in the state of absolute disbelief, all these emotions are normal human emotions but I want to you be in control how you manage them,” she said.
Forbes said AKA was hard working and he spent hours perfecting his work and when his fans coined the word Megacy, this meant a lot to him.
“Kiernan would wake me up at 4am and show me his work. I would tell him I’m your mother and it’s too early. To him it was about excellency”.
Supermega’s childhood friend, Simphiwe “Sim Dope” Gumede told the mourners how AKA surprised him with a song named after him. He spoke at great length on how they were never fascinated about playing rugby at school like other kids and how happy he was when AKA told him: “Boy your life is about to change, I wrote a song about you, me, life and everything…you meant so much to me,” Gumede said.
Media personality Sizwe Dhlomo painted a beautiful picture of how “The world is your” hit-maker wanted to achieve greater heights.
“He always had a grand plan for his career, so I asked him, what is it that you are hoping to be? He said well I want to be a Megastar, he gave me an answer so specific that I’ve never forgotten it. He looked me dead in the eye and he said ‘I want the mass appeal of Pro (late rapper), commercial viability of HHP (another super star who died) and stage presence of Brenda Fassie,” said Dhlomo.
Actress Nandi Madida said she was inspired by the award winning rapper who was a pioneer at a very young age and she hoped that those who killed AKA will be arrested and imprisoned.
According to rapper and AKA music collaborator in the song “Lie to me”, Ezee Hanabe whose stage name is Ma-E, AKA started from nothing to be the best. He then became a ‘legend’, a ‘big figure’, ‘Supermega’ and an ‘icon’.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi was the only politician who came to the stage and gave a short address and referred to AKA his friend.
AKA will be laid to rest today at West Park Cemetery in Johannesburg.
