Along with one other man, South African rapper AKA, real name Kiernan Forbes, was shot and killed by two armed assailants on Friday night outside a restaurant in Durban, South Africa, the New York Times reports.
Forbes, born in Cape Town, made his debut in 2010 with the singles “I Want It All” and “Victory Lap” and went on to release several acclaimed albums, including Levels, Touch My Blood and Bhovamania, Mass Country.
His output was partially influenced by the American rap music he’d first become exposed to at private school in Johannesburg, as well as by Nigerian Afrobeats collaborators and uniquely South African genres like kwaito and amapiano.
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South African officials said that the possibility that the killings of Forbes and his friend, Tebello ‘Tibz’ Motsoane, were the product of a hit can not yet be ruled out.
“AKA was counted amongst the best rappers on the continent,” the South Africa Department of Sport, Arts and Culture said in a statement. “AKA was one of the most patriotic artists who literally flew the South African flag high everywhere he went around the globe.”
