By: Lehlohonolo Mashigo
Anyone who has seen me in a bus, train, car, school, varsity or wherever I am can attest that I breathe and live for a music genre called hip hop (my pants are usually a giveaway), with my headset on at least once a week playing “All Eyes on Me” by Kiernan “AKA The Super Mega” Jarryd Forbes.
An MC in hip hop is a vocalist who rhymes over sampling, scratching, and mixing supplied by a DJ, and AKA mastered this art.
To most people, it’s just a music genre, but to me it is more than that; it manifests as culture and life itself, and from what I could see, it meant the same thing to AKA.
It’s amazing how in this genre you never go by your government name. In fact, you give yourself a name; it’s the ego in this music genre. It is a confidence thing, like Clark Kent becoming Superman.
I swear, if you're in the hip hop community, we don’t refer to each other like they do at home, so I'm going to call him what I’ve always called him: Super Mega.
Super Mega was my age mate. He was born in January of 1988, and I was born in May of the same year, so to me, it was like we grew up together and fell in love with hip hop around the same time.
I always looked at him as a picture of what I would have been had I followed my passion (maybe I wouldn’t have been as good, but it’s good to dream).
He was an image of what our generation in South African hip hop had created.
It was through a song he titled “Dreamwork” featuring rapper Yanga Chief that I knew he was special in the game (the hip hop music industry). Super Mega put it in words that we can make a dream work.
I would repeat that song countless times, dancing around like a child at a birthday party, just about to receive a present. In a way, when I was down, those words made me believe my dreams would still come true.
Super Mega always had a dream to be the Super Mega; he said as much in “The Saga”, a track he did with Anatii, and it looks like he made his dream come true. I remember bumping into it in my boy Zee’s whip (car) heading to campus.
The song pumped me up for a test, an exam assignment, and he also made me dream.
There is one song that really put AKA at the top of South African hip hop. “Run Jozi”, in my opinion, has one of the best flows (rhythms and rhymes). It was seamless, it was legendary, and he reminded me of the 7-year-old boy who fell in love with this cultural phenomenon called hip hop… Did I mention the bars (multiple rap lines) and the lyrics in the joint (song)? “You go to my school. They can’t tell you sh*t ’bout Chris Hani, Chris Hani. This ain’t the land of the free”, words that provoked debate even about the education we get.
Sometimes, when I was thinking throughout the entire week, I could picture Super Mega just like me going to cyphers and hip hop sessions with skaters and crumpers, breakdancers, at basketball courts and libraries (with school uniforms on, your girl wearing your blazer while you rap), battling out or spitting (rapping) some bars that made all the MCs (rappers) lose their minds.
With everyone that’s not in the community thinking we are acting American or trying to be western and calling us the N-word, Super Mega said that the world is yours; he never just made music.
Super Mega loved hip hop music till his last day. It proved to me that I was right to look up to him.
So I go back to the bus, train car, or walking to the shop after your death, Super Mega, and remember Tupac saying “Keep Ya Head Up,” then I move down my playlist and listen to The Notorious B.I.G. say “You never thought that hip hop would make it this far,” and after that, I listen to Hip Hop Pantsula (HHP) teach us about Harembe (all pull together).
As my battery runs out from listening to hours of lyrics, some are angry, some are degrading, some are materialistic, others rap about crime and violence, while others speak about loving their mothers, fathers, religion, pain, and heartache.
I understand why this culture has become so important to me and why I can imagine it was important to Super Mega. It comes from absolutely nothing and, in less than 100 years, can produce such an excellent representation of expression, like you, bro.
To Kairo, I am not sure if I am speaking for all in the hip hop community, but I hope that you will always have a place with us, and to the Forbes family, I hope you heal from the tragedy that happens far too often to legendary rap musicians.
I do not know if what I have written here is a tribute to Super Mega, but then I listened to a song by P. Diddy titled “Missing You”. A song that came after the death of The Notorious B.I.G., and I think although I was not close to Mega, through his music I felt like I was part of your crew (hip hop group), like I told you that your lyrics were dope (great) after every hot bar.
In the song, Diddy raps, “It's kinda hard with you not around (yeah). Know you in Heaven smilin’ down. Watchin’ us while we pray for you. Every day, we pray for you. ’Til the day we meet again. In my heart is where I’ll keep you, friend.”
Rest in Peace, Super Mega, I love you, big homie. Thank you for your raps, big homie. Thank you for keeping hip hop in your heart and for all the jewels (lessons) that you put in your rhymes. Thank you for everything. Robala ka Kghotso MC!
(I would also like to send a shout-out to Prokid, Mizchief, DJ Citi Lyts, Riky “Boss Zonke” Rick, HHP, DJ Dimplez, and all the other MCs (rappers) and deejays who gave it all to hip hop; rest in peace, gents.)
*Lehlohonolo Mashigo is a multimedia journalist for The Star newspaper and Hip Hop culture enthusiast