AKA’s grieving dad, Tony Forbes, has spoken about the hurt and pain he and his family were going through seven months after the multi-award-winning rapper was murdered.
In a 16 minute interview with eNCA, Supa Mega’s dad was asked how the family were doing.
He responded: “I guess we’re okay, but it’s very difficult. In some ways, I feel it’s even more difficult, I think after seven months, you start to get to that stage where life is carrying on now, things are becoming more quiet.
“I feel the gap, the hole of him not being with us even more … I have my bad days, my very bad days and I have better days … It wasn’t just losing a child, it was the circumstances.”
He said that as a family, they continued to struggle with coming to terms with what had happened to AKA, who lives on in his music and videos.
Forbes said AKA had loved to listen to “old school” music. Artists such as Bread, Jackson Brown, Billy Joel, George Benson, Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) and Stevie Wonder were among his favourites.
He and AKA would often listen to music from his era together, which had eventually inspired AKA to get into music.
Forbes said that when he thought about the impact AKA had made, it encouraged him to go out and do similar things in his life.
“I find comfort in getting up and doing some of those things. I am also going to do a book, but it is going to be a different book.
“Couple of days before his funeral, this friends came out … they all came out and spoke about their journey with Kiernan and I remember feeling proud and grateful in that moment, although it was very painful and raw.
“Later, I thought: ‘What if I could have that feeling again? Those stories could be in a book format.’ It’s one of the projects I’ve started on, it will probably take a year or so to come to fruition, but the more I focus on doing these things, the more I feel inspired, rather than sad.”
On navigating his relationship with his granddaughter, Kairo, AKA’s daughter with DJ Zinhle, he said: “She’s a very strong, resilient child. She speaks when she wants to speak about it and the emotions come out, whether it’s going to the grave or she did a track at Joburg Day, for example.
“It’s just being there for her when she wants to talk and supporting her.”
Reflecting on a fond memory of AKA, Forbes shared a story of how the late rapper, in his younger days, would do a rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Bad”.
“Kienan would come down the stairs, jump down and then he would do a rendition of ‘Bad’. He had these white sneakers with orange laces … he had real passion for the music.
“He grew up in the era of the Michael Jackson’s and he loved that. Those were his formative years.”
Watch the full interview below.