Burna Boy breaks silence on secret peace with AKA

Nigerian music star, Burna Boy, has revealed that he settled his long-running feud with late South African rapper, AKA, before the latter's tragic death.

The two artists famously fell out in 2019 after Burna Boy threatened to “deal” with AKA if they ever crossed paths.

The tension followed a heated period during which AKA was accused of encouraging xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in South Africa, after he shared screenshots of abusive messages he claimed to have received from Nigerian social media accounts amid AFCON quarter-final match banter.

However, Burna Boy has now disclosed that the rift was quietly resolved before AKA was killed.

In an emotional posthumous birthday message shared on his Instagram page, Burna Boy said the pair had squashed their beef privately through direct messages on Twitter, away from public attention. He expressed deep regret that AKA died before they could fully reconnect and bring their shared plans and potential collaborations to life.

“Happy birthday Supa Mega,” Burna Boy wrote. “We fell out over bullsh*t even though we squashed it over Twitter DMs nobody knew about. We never got the chance to really link up and do what we were supposed to do. I will regret that until I see you again. Until then, R.I.P Mega.”

AKA, whose real name was Kiernan Forbes, was shot dead by a gunman outside a restaurant in Durban on 10 February 2023, in a killing that sent shockwaves across Africa's music industry. The trial into his murder is still ongoing.