The church of AKA and Anatii has risen
AFTER the long awaited Don’t Forget to Pray music video by AKA and Anatii dropped, all we got was decent angles showing them on an orange background; AKA standing below a perky derrière; Anatii dancing his heart out; cut always to a Bible, a dog, a snake, a lizard, crown of thorns and a red apple with pins in it. Before we get deep into the analysis we will just state that the video, at the very least, is underwhelming for two reasons.
Firstly, the song Don’t Forget to Pray for many fans came as proof that AKA and Anatii were officially back together and had been cooking a whole lot more than 10 Fingers, which they released last year. It backed up the call for a duo album, that eventually came (what a blessing). Secondly, we cannot overlook the fact that, Don’t Forget to Pray, was dropped on the same date as AKA’S rival, Cassper Nyovest’s third album, Thuto. We just saved the day,they mentioned on the song.
This background makes for fireworks on visuals, which have become increasingly important for hip hop culture in South Africa. AKA has also been a pioneer for great visuals for his music, which is why we (his fans and I) were surprised that a music video produced by his company, 3RDWORLD Studios, was a bit underwhelming and not punchy enough for the song. One of the top comments on the video on Youtube, by Jack Shimosa, read, “Can’t believe I waited about 3 months for this. The song is dope but I’m disappointed by the video fam.” While we’re not happy with the execution of the idea they had in mind with it, we appreciate the symbolism used in the video, which isn’t as common in our music videos, especially hip hop.
Some of the cut aways are very symbolic and consistent with the religious theme of the song. If you’ve read the Bible before, and how it’s been interpreted socially, a red apple usually represents sin, although the fruit isn’t mentioned in the story of Adam and Eve.
The lizard shown in the video is from the Chamaeleonidae family and as we know with chameleons, they change colour depending on their environment. I am not going to get too technical about that because it’s selfexplanatory and it could have multiple explanations. It could be a way of showing how they adapt to the ever changing industry? Could be the change of heart from the two of them to reconcile and work together? Or it could well represent people that can’t be trusted because they change colours in the industry. We don’t know! We’re still wrapping our heads around that theory.
A snake, much like the red apple, is also one taken straight from the Bible. We all know how our Sunday school teacher would keep reminding us of the great deceiving serpent. We will leave you to speculate who the snakes are in the narrative of the video.
The bright side to take from this though is AKA and Anatii have set a high standard for themselves with the music they produced on #BCWYWF, and they simply can’t rest on their laurels by providing underwhelming music videos. Not today.