The wait is finally over! Local hip-hop heavyweight AKA is back with some brand-new music as he drops his highly-anticipated new studio album ‘BHOVAMANIA’ today.
Inspired by his love for wrestling, AKA gives fans an assortment of tracks to suit their musical needs as he continues to push musical and personal boundaries through his material. The title and overarching creative is an ode to AKA’s love of sport, particularly wrestling, and brings out his alter ego persona.
The 13-track album includes features from some of the most notable names including Sho Madjozi, K.O, Yanga Chief, L-Tido and features hit singles like “Casino” with Sho Madjozi, a track which was met with great critical praise, as well as ‘Cross My Heart’, ‘Energy’ featuring Gemini Major and ‘Monuments’ featuring award-winning Yanga Chief.
The rapper has also created a special merchandise range for the era and items flew off the shelves, selling out within hours of the site going live – further testament to AKA’s incredible star-power
“This is my first conceptual album and I am really excited about how everyone experiencing it,” AKA says of his new project. Here, he raps over EDM, Afropop and house music and taps into an array of samples and clips tailored around the theme of wrestling in a way that’s both nostalgic and cinematic. “There’s a lot of electric guitar on the album which is very much in the style of vintage WWE wrestler entrance themes,” he tells Apple Music. “I tried to play on that throughout the album to give it that kind of texture and all those wrestling clips gave it that feel. In hip-hop you project a persona, sometimes get stuck in character and become a bit larger than life with all the drama and over-the-top-ness. That’s what the parallels between the two art forms are.”
Listen to ‘BHOVAMANIA’ here:
