SA: Nadia Nakai drops Never Leave single ahead of new album

The song features local rapper KashCPT and is a journey of Nadia’s themes of love, loss and the eternal influence of AKA in the music scene. Nadia’s tribute album will drop in the first quarter of 2024, with collaborations that span the spectrum of hip hop to R&B. Nadia uses ‘Never Leave’ to express her dedication to honour the memory of her late partner through music they both loved.

“Working on this album has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Nadia said. “This pain couldn’t be healed by anything or anyone, but I saw how Kiernan [AKA] always went straight to the music to deal with everything he went through. I started this project a month after he passed in hopes that it would heal me or take away my pain.

“It didn’t, but it started the journey of my healing as the album evolved from when I started to what it is now. Documenting my grief and pain led me from anger to celebrating his life. I am awakening my spiritual side. There’s a lot that went into this album. My single ‘Never Leave’ featuring KashCPT, is the first single from the project. Kash is very special for me because he is from Cape Town, and secondly, I see so much of Kiernan in him, especially what I would imagine Kiernan was like at the beginning of his career, easily gifted.”