WATCH | 'I’m so proud of you baby' — Nadia Nakai lauds her late beau AKA as 'Mass Country' launches

Nadia Nakai is beaming with pride after the launch of her late boyfriend's fourth studio album, Mass Country.

Kiernan “AKA” Forbes was gunned down outside a popular restaurant in Durban on February 10 alongside his lifelong friend, celebrity chef Tebello “Tibz” Motsoane.

AKA had produced and completed Mass Country to be launched in February 2023.

The album features some of Mzansi's hottest hip hop talent including Khuli Chana, Blxckie, Emtee, Yanga Chief, Sjava and Nadia, among many others.

Nadia took to her timeline on Thursday at the album launch expressing her pride.

“I can’t believe this is happening without you. I’m so proud of you baby. You did it,” she wrote.

At the launch, Nadia recalled how she and AKA would imagine themselves as Beyoncé́ and Jay-Z performing on stage together and recording music together.

The Naaa Meaan hit maker said the song Dangerous, on which she features alongside Blxckie, was a song they made a week before AKA's death.

“I think it was part of our love language. It was something we used to do, just the two of us in the living room; it was part of your date night, just like showing love to each other. We've worked on multiple songs. This is probably the second-last song that we worked on together. We worked on the song the last week before he passed away as well.

“It was something that we always did because we're both musicians, we're both rappers, and I looked up to him for so long in my life. And for obvious reasons we couldn't make music so its crazy that the moment that we were able to get together, and make music was from a lovers perspective and not artists that are collaborating together. I think that's why it's so special to me.”

Since his death, streams of AKA’s music have increased by 743% on Spotify.

AKA's mother Lynn Forbes said she was excited to finally release the album after having had her son play it for the family before his death.

“Kiernan was so proud of Mass Country. As a family it was a pleasure to see his music's evolution over the years. He played us this album over and over again. We’re happy the world finally gets to hear it,” she said in a statement shared with TshisaLIVE.

Mass Country topped the SA Twitter trends chart on Friday, with many saying they loved the album.