YoungstaCPT has released his and Shaney Jay’s latest single “Benni McCarthy”, dedicated to the South African football icon it’s named after. The song is also in memory of the recently slain South African rapper Kiernan ‘AKA‘ Forbes. A fast-paced drill cut, it was produced by Shaney Jay and is released as the first single for the upcoming collaborative album between the two titled Suffer For Beauty. Youngsta and Shaney have collaborated on a project before, in 2021, with the release of the well-received mixtape, Dreams Don’t Pay Bills.
Written in 2022, mainly as an ode to Benni McCarthy, the song would unfortunately also have to be in memory of AKA, who was shot and killed on 10 February 2023. Speaking about the song, Youngsta says: “I wrote the song ‘Benni McCarthy’ in 2022 around the time the news broke that he was going to be coaching with Manchester United. It was a magical moment for all Cape Townians.” In the opening lines of the song, Youngsta raps, “Channeling my inner Benni / I swear at Referee saying that YOU musn’t push/ Took AKA to Hanover Park FaceTimed Benni while we were lamming with Oeg / surrounded by OGs / a memorable moment that I’ll never ever forgot…”
The connection AKA, Youngsta and Benni McCarthy all have is that their roots are in Cape town. So when AKA and Youngsta collaborated on their 2021 single “Main Ou’s” and shot the music video in Hanover Park, Cape Town, Youngsta took the opportunity to get on a call with Benni McCarthy along with AKA. “I wrote ‘Benni McCarthy’ in 2022 with that day in mind being that Kiernan (AKA) was a huge Benni fan & called him that day to show him that we were on his home ground. It was such a powerful moment for me because I had brought these powerhouses together, from the streets soldier to a music megastar to a football hero all at the same time. It was a full circle moment and was definitely a top 3 moment in my life even before the tragedy that occurred. I lost so many people that are in that music video due to gang violence but never thought I would lose Kiernan in that way. It really hurts. SA hip hop truly won’t ever be the same.” Youngsta reveals.
Listen to YoungstaCPT pay tribute to AKA with Benni McCarthy here:
