Unpopular Opinion: The Importance Of Posthumous Albums

It feels unreal that Riky Rick’s sophomore album ‘Boss Zonke Forever’, announced by Sony on Sunday, will be released three years after his passing. We couldn’t be more grateful for the music. ‘Cishe Ngaposta’, which Riky teased himself while still with us, is finally coming out. 

The song, produced by Herc Cut The Lights, will feature a crazy lineup of 25K, Focalistic, Blxckie, K.Keed, Blue Pappi and LowFeye. Obviously not all those artists were hand-picked by Riky himself; he wanted the late Costa Titch, Blxckie, Boity, Danya Devs and Mdu (?) on it, as he said in the video teasing the song years ago.  

No artist was out of bounds for Riky 

But all of the artists featured on the version of the song we will hear in March make sense. He had already worked with Focalistic on ‘Ungaz’ Ncishi’ and, knowing Riky, we’ve all agreed he would have loved The Qwellers so Blue Pappi and LowFeye make perfect sense. 

But, a few of the features on the rest of the album, one can’t be sure if they would have made it to a Riky album. But you also can’t be sure they wouldn’t. Riky had an eclectic taste and he could have worked with anyone. His list of collaborators includes everyone from Big Zulu to Frank Casino, The Big Hash, Tyler ICU, Nasty C, A-Reece and Venom & Shishiliza, among many other artists from different walks of music. So, who’s to say he wouldn’t have worked with Aubrey Qwana or Lwah Ndlunkulu? You simply could never rule any artist out with Riky. At some point, he was supposed to make music with Bra Hugh Masekela.

As much as most fans are excited for the upcoming project, the reactions to the announcement were always going to be mixed. There’s a cohort of music fans who believe posthumous albums are nothing but money-making schemes that don’t align with the artist’s vision. So, the solution according to them is to keep the incomplete music in the vault. It’s a sentimental standpoint one just can’t argue with. 

Why everyone hates posthumous albums 

Posthumous albums have always been hated by critics. Pop Smoke’s ’Faith’ album, released a year after his death, was criticised as “unconcerned with anything outside of financial gain” by a Pitchfork reviewer. A reviewer wrote on RollingStone that 2pac’s ‘R U Still Down (Remember Me)’, released two years after his death, “doesn’t really make sense of the Tupac legacy”. 

Both reviewers had a point. So does anyone who feels Riky’s upcoming album has the potential to compromise Riky Rick’s vision and taint his catalogue. 

But, the thing about a posthumous album is that it’s never released under the guise of being created in its entirety by the artist. A choice to pass on the album is totally justified. But, the best way to approach a posthumous album as a listener is to acknowledge that it’s partly a community project, a homage to the artist by their estate, label and collaborators. Even the title ‘Boss Zonke Forever’ does feel tributary. 

As a listener, treat it like a sneak peek into the vault. A collection of a work in progress that’s trapped in amber finally being shown to the public.

The teams and individuals behind the project won’t get everything right, but the artist himself wouldn’t have. It’s not like we don’t tear apart albums created by artists who are still alive. We’ve had snippets that didn’t live up to the hype. Even in albums that are widely considered perfect, we will always find a song that’s too long or too short or an unnecessary guest. It’s the nature of music consumption. Even ‘Thriller’ and ‘Illmatic’ have their “weakest” songs in the ears of music nerds. 

The importance of posthumous albums 

The issue with fans who choose to be precious about posthumous albums is they are being selfish somehow. It’s truly noble that they have the artist’s interest at heart, but it’s short-sighted to not realise that posthumous releases, apart from comforting core fans, they can introduce the artist to new fans. A kid listening to Riky for the first time with ‘Boss Zonke Forever’ will likely find themselves pursuing more of Riky’s catalogue and tapping in to ‘Family Values’ and ‘Stay Shining’ for the first time. Ain’t that a win? 

A posthumous album keeps the artist’s name in the conversation. 

One of Riky Rick’s biggest inspirations, 2pac died in 1996, but his family released six more albums (excluding ‘The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory’ which was finished by Pac himself, kinda like ‘Mass Country’) after his death until 2006. The rest were created using old recordings and contributions from other artists, and didn’t go down well with purists who felt Pac’s camp was diluting his music, but they did keep Pac on the charts and in the conversation for at least a decade after his death. Admittedly, 2pac’s estate did push it with the last two posthumous albums — ‘Loyal To The Game’ (2004) and ‘Pac’s Life’ (2006) — which saw contributions from the likes of Eminem, Obie Trice, G-Unit, T.I and Ashanti, who Pac had never met while he was still alive. 

Of course, with time, even artists who’ve passed on gain new fans without posthumous albums (‘Madvillainy’ by Madlib and the late DOOM has surpassed a billion streams since the rapper’s passing), but an effort to continue the legacy is always welcome especially if it doesn’t include AI-generated vocals. Adding other artist’s contributions is a completely different ball game to putting words in the mouth of a man who’s no longer with us. But… we don’t judge. 

It’s okay to be against posthumous releases, indeed they don’t fully represent the artist and their vision, but they don’t ruin anything. Not the artist’s legacy, not their discography. Purists don’t even count ‘Until The End Of Time’, ’Still I Rise’ or ‘Better Dayz’ when discussing 2pac albums. Those albums are blocked out of their mind and are almost deemed non-existent. Some serious Pac gems on those albums btw.

But, emotionally, those albums still mean a lot to many fans. Take some time and ponder the benefits of a posthumous release.

Listen to our playlist paying respect to South African artists we’ve lost over the years: