Thursday, 14th of April SAE was abuzz with excitement at the anticipated AKA Campus visit that was due to take place that day.
South African artist and megastar AKA is a multi award winning rapper with a string of hits to his name and together with our NPO partners, Bridges for Music, has launched the #AKAScholarship at SAE Institute Cape Town.
Aside from the AKA campus visit which saw him get the grand your of our world-class sound studios and training facilities, AKA also hosted a mammoth Q&A session attended by all our audio engineering students and also members of the media.
The session was scheduled for one hour but the slew of really thought-provoking questions being put forward were of such high quality, it was clear AKA was enjoying the interaction in the room.
AKA also explained his motivation for creating this scholarship in conjunction with SAE;
“I am honoured to partner up with the SAE Institute and Bridges for Music to provide young people with the opportunity to shape their futures and potentially realize their dreams.
“Visiting the campus today, I realized the scale of the work and investment we are collectively putting into this project. I have always believed that one day when I finally achieved my dreams that I would do whatever I could to help others do the same.
“Good luck to all the applicants.”
SAE Institute Director Trenton Birch echoed these sentiments;
“It was a real honour to host the AKA campus visit today. We were blown away by his openness and engagement with the students and his sincere excitement about the scholarship was infectious. His level of commitment to his art and our industry is inspiring and we are proud to have him as a scholarship ambassador.”
Regarding the AKA Campus visit he also tweeted this…
Such an inspiring experience! @sae_capetown is doing great things for the youth in ZA”
The importance of education
AKA himself studied Sound Engineering after school and emphasised this point during discussions. He went on record to say that the campus visit had been one his most inspiring days and that he wished he could have attended a college like SAE in his day.
Regarding the #AKAScholarship itself, AKA said it appealed to him to be a patron for a scholarship and to know that he was involved in helping a disadvantaged artist realise their dreams through music.
He also made it very clear that as an artist having a background in audio engineering, having studied it himself, had empowered him to understand more about that front-of-house engineers were doing when doing sound checks at shows as well as being immensely helpful in the studio too.
BONUS SESSION WITH BENZA
The impact of the AKA Student session was so impactful that an unplanned Q&A session with AKA’s manager, Benza, was also held. Benza offered some really insightful knowledge on the role of an artist manager, the state of artist management in South Africa and why artists need to consider very carefully who they have manage them.
Benza empathised that a management team and the artist need to form an essential partnership with a common vision to achieve their goals.
APPLY FOR THE #AKASCHOLARSHIP
For more information and to apply for the #AKAScholarship simply click on this link.
Watch the full AKA Student Q&A Session…