Nadia Nakai is set to release her tribute single to the late AKA titled ‘Never Leave’

As Nadia Nakai gears up to launch a tribute album in honour of her late boyfriend Kiernan “AKA” Forbes, who was shot dead on February 10, 2023, she’s shared a preview with her fans.  The rapper took to her timeline on Monday to share a snippet of the first single Never Leave, which is set to be released on January 26.

“I Miss You. Happy Heavenly Birthday (28 January 2024)” she captioned the post.

Image: Nadia – X

While Nadia has been candid about mourning her boyfriend, she has also been spending a lot of time in the studio.

On X, Nadia said she was itching to release the music she recorded, reflecting on the journey.

“Working on the album is healing. Been recording all year, but something unlocked the past two weeks. I can’t explain, something happened,” she wrote.

Nadia Nakai exclusively broke down the song’s narrative to SlikourOnLife touching on the Jesus pendant Nadia is holding on the single’s artwork.

“The story behind ’Never Leave’ is just something that I wish he never did, I wish he was able to stay here forever with me. He’s gone and trying to come to terms with what that means, how permanent it is and how I wish he did certain things, like keep this pendant on that he bought when we were in the States last year on our holiday.

He used to brag about how he’s never going to take off this pendant, this cross, and the day he passed he took it off. And now I wear it everyday and I just wish he had kept it on, maybe it would’ve protected him..”

Nadia said her fans would be surprised with the work she created with other artists who contributed to the project.

“My tribute EP has become my tribute album and it’s beautiful. I wish I could drop it today. I really can’t wait, I didn’t think I could do this, but I did that, some of the songs came to me in a dream. Spiritual, I swear.

“Listening to the album on the way home, it’s amazing. Nothing you’ve heard from me before. This is spiritual. It really is. The people that have come to work on this project are out of this world.”

‘Never Leave’ is a collaboration with Kashcpt.

“The reason I featured Kashcpt mainly is because he’s a very talented guy, he can sing, he can rap, he can write, he’s an amazing talent and I feel he kind of reminds me of Kiernan. If I had known Kiernan when he started out his career being that talented, also Kash is from Cape Town, he represents the city that Kiernan is from as well so it was very sentimental for me to have him on this specific song.

“While I was in studio with him, he reminded me of what I think Kiernan would’ve been when he started making music at the beginning of his musical career. I think he was really instrumental in getting the message across and singing with so much passion and love.”

PRE-SAVE NOW: https://nadianakai.lnk.to/neverleave-presave