This morning, as I was minding my business and doing my usual scroll through my Spotify homepage, something caught my fangirl eye and sent my heart racing: a brand new single, “Cocktail,” apparently by the late South African rapper AKA. The artwork? A moody shot of a Molotov cocktail—which, let’s be honest, would make a very on-brand statement for a posthumous release from the Supa Mega himself.
Naturally, I click. No way would a new AKA song slip past the whole internet with zero hype, right? Where was the buzz, the Instagram teasers, the WhatsApp statuses? Still, the temptation was too much. I hit play, expecting fire. What I got instead? French. Not the romantic, “let’s sip wine on the Seine” French, but full-throttle, explicit French rap, my Google Translate told me so!
Cue confusion. Maybe it’s a feature? Maybe this is some international collab? I skip ahead. More French. I check the credits. Still French. At this point, I’m questioning reality and, frankly, my sanity.
So I dig deeper. The same “Cocktail” track appears on YouTube, freshly uploaded by an “aka-topic” channel that’s only five days old. The description? Distributed by DistroKid. I press play. It’s the exact same French rap song.
Bottom line: This “AKA” is not the South African legend. It’s a French rapper called “aka.” Meanwhile, the late Kiernan Forbes—our “Fela In Versace”—is nowhere to be found on this track.
Is it a classic case of streaming platform confusion, where two artists, with the same stage name, have wildly different vibes? Or perhaps a clever, sneaky marketing gimmick for an indie artist hoping for a little accidental Supa Mega clout? Or worse yet, a lowkey hack?
For a moment, I thought we were getting a surprise posthumous drop. But, turns out, AKA” is a very common stage name, and streaming platforms often lump different artists together, especially when there’s no detailed artist profile or unique metadata. Either way, fans of South Africa’s AKA are open for a surprise… and not the kind they were hoping for.
Dear Spotify (and DistroKid): Maybe it’s time for a little quality control? Because that’s definitely not OUR AKA!
