The post 3 Songs AKA’s Mom Listens To When She Misses Him appeared first on SA Hip Hop Mag.
3 Songs AKA’s Mom Listens To When She Misses Him. When South Africans remember Kiernan “AKA” Forbes, they often think of chart-topping hits, cultural impact, and lyrical confidence. For his mother, Lynn Forbes, the music carries something far more intimate.
In a recent interview with SA Hip Hop Mag, she shared the three AKA songs she turns to when she misses her son, offering a deeply personal reflection that moves beyond fandom into memory, love, and loss. Before naming the songs, Lynn was careful to frame her answer in her own way.
Asked about her three go-to AKA songs, Lynn Forbes first made an important distinction, grounding her response in love and lived experience.
“I’m glad you’re not saying favourite songs because I can never choose favourite AKA songs, but I do have favourite Kiernan songs … my go-to songs that connect me to him as my son and to specific memories we shared. These are the songs that remind me that he is missing from me, but not gone.”
Her first choice, “Congratulate,” instantly transports her back to a joyful moment in 2014, when AKA was stepping into a new creative chapter.
“Congratulate takes me back to 2014, when I was living in Norwood. After the shoot for the music video, which he co-directed, he came to my house beaming in true Kiernan fashion. I made him a snackwich and poured him a glass of Oros with ice …he loved chewing the ice … and he couldn’t sit still. He was so proud, talking non-stop and telling me how he was a music video director now. He was funny and had such a great sense of humour.”
Beyond the light-hearted memory, the song holds a deeper significance for her, reflecting the essence of who Kiernan was becoming.
“That song carries the story of where he came from, the belief he had in himself, and the determination that had always been part of who he was. Watching that video finally come out and seeing how proud he was… that moment lives with me,” she added.
Her second song, “Everest” from Mass Country, carries a weight that is both personal and profound. Lynn Forbes revealed a conversation that has stayed with her ever since.
“Everest is from the Mass Country album and it holds a very special place in my heart. Kiernan publicly spoke about the fact that Mass Country was his love letter to South Africa. But he also told me that this would be his last album, and that this one he was recording for himself. Whether he meant that in a final sense or just in that season of his life, I don’t know. But those words have stayed with me.”
She then recalled an intimate early-morning moment that reshaped how she would forever hear the song.
“One morning at 4am, he woke me up and asked me to come downstairs and listen to Everest with him. After we sat together and listened to it, he looked at me and said, “This is the one, Mom.” He didn’t explain it, and I didn’t ask. I could just feel that it was deeply personal to him. So we sat there quietly and he just nodded his head. We didn’t need many words because we had lived through what he captured in the lyrics of that song.”
After Kiernan’s passing, the meaning of Everest shifted again, becoming a source of strength and comfort in her own journey.
“After losing him, Everest took on an even deeper meaning in my own life. The lyrics speak about gathering strength and climbing through life’s hardest moments. I know what he meant when he wrote it, but the song feels like it found me when I needed it most. If Mass Country is his love letter to South Africa, then in my heart, Everest feels like his final message to me. I still play it when I’m driving alone. It keeps me going … ‘There’s no Everest, no mountain too high for me to operate’, it’s my silent mantra.”
Her third and final song, “Crown,” reflects the side of AKA that many heard but few truly understood.
“And then there is Crown. That song reminds me of his fire, his drive, and the weight he carried. People might hear bravado, but I hear resilience. I hear someone who had been through the worst and kept going. I hear responsibility. That’s the Kiernan I know too.”
Through these songs, Lynn Forbes paints a portrait not just of a global superstar, but of a son, an artist, and a man whose legacy continues to live on in music, memory, and meaning.
The post 3 Songs AKA’s Mom Listens To When She Misses Him appeared first on SA Hip Hop Mag.
The post 3 Songs AKA’s Mom Listens To When She Misses Him appeared first on SA Hip Hop Mag.
3 Songs AKA’s Mom Listens To When She Misses Him. When South Africans remember Kiernan “AKA” Forbes, they often think of chart-topping hits, cultural impact, and lyrical confidence. For his mother, Lynn Forbes, the music carries something far more intimate. 3 Songs AKA’s Mom Listens To When She Misses Him In a recent interview with …
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