South Africa and Nigeria have a codependent relationship as two of the giants of the African continent. Rapper MCKAY is the latest artist to marry both countries’ interests in a bid for domination.
Here is a list of things you need to know about the new upstart.
Christened Akorede Ezekiel Taiwo, he was born on the 18th of June 1997 and grew up in Nigeria before relocating to South Africa with his family in 2013. In 2015, he dropped his first EP titled KING n KNIGHTS with the lead single Winning earning radio play in South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria.
On 24th of February 2017, he announced and explained the idea/concept behind the forthcoming release of his Mixtape TRAPPIST-1 which caught the eye of American Rapper Big Sean on Instagram. On 15th of April 2017, he dropped the first single off the mixtape titled Lil Momma resulting in an offer from a major European record label to market and distribute his works across Europe. His video titled K has gained over 115,000 views on youtube and has been getting good plays on both radio, cable, and terrestrial TV stations.
His sophomore EP TRAPPIST-1 peaked at number 4 on the TOP 200 HIP-HOP albums in South Africa and number 1 across all genres in Kenya. The album has now gained over 1 million streams across streaming platforms in less than 5 months. He was ranked number 2 most streamed artist in South Africa by Spotify in 2018 with close to 2 million streams. He also released his sophomore EP titled TRAPPIST-2 a follow up to TRAPPIST 1 and it went on to peak at number 2 in South Africa.
His most recent release Better Days was released in Jan 2020, with a video, in the works as he gears up to tour Nigeria.