In South Africa there are nearly 23 suicides a day, almost one every hour. The stigma around talking about mental illness is a major reason we have one of the world’s highest suicide rates. This stigma is felt more intensely by men.

While mental illness is not a subject many men find easy to engage in, Riky Rick, a local rapper, was a person whom many people could rely on for inspiration and guidance. Because Riky knew this, he was vocal about his own mental struggles. He constantly promoted mental well-being and encouraged people to find help. Unfortunately, Riky lost his battle with mental illness, and we knew we would struggle to find a voice as powerful as his to continue his message. That’s why we had to find a way for his voice to live on. Our goal was to continue his legacy of helping and uplifting people.

After struggling with depression South African hip hop icon Riky Rick succumbed to his battle with mental illness and took his own life. Known for inspiring people with his words, Riky’s death meant that we didn’t just lose a massive musical talent, but a person whose words uplifted everyone around him.

Our goal was to find a way for his voice to live on and we found our solution in his social media posts. Reading through them felt like reading lyrics to a song. So, we used his social media posts and AI to create one last song from him titled “Stronger”. A song that keeps his message alive and continues to inspire people.

The University of Witwatersrand has published that 75% of South Africans won’t seek help with mental illness because of the negative stigma attached to the disease. Even with this horrifying stat there isn’t a lot of media that covers and speaks about mental illness. Our objective was to reach two audiences to spark a positive nationwide conversation on mental well-being. The millions of fans of the late rapper Riky Rick and the radio/media personalities, people who have a lot to say as to what the nationwide narrative should be. We brought the late rapper’s voice to life through AI and produced a song using his social posts as rap lyrics. With the help of Sony, Riky’s record label, we shared the song on all social platforms, radio stations, streaming platforms, and music television channels.

Known for inspiring the youth with his words, Riky Rick’s death meant that we didn’t just lose a massive musical talent, but also a person whose words to uplifted those around him.

Our goal was to make sure we found a way for his voice to live on.

We found our solution in Riky’s social media posts. Because he was so intentional with his words, reading through his posts felt like reading lyrics to a song he left hidden for us to find. So, we used them to make one last song from him titled “Stronger”.

We took his social posts and laid them down as rap lyrics over a hip hop beat produced by Riky’s long-time collaborator and friend. To clone his voice, we trained the AI with raw audio separates of his voice. We pulled these from his hit songs and the interviews that he did over the years. This process was repeated many times until we had a clone that sounded exactly like Riky, validated by his family. The result is a track that sounded as if Riky recorded it himself. His words, his beat and his voice.

The song was played across local radio and TV stations and shared widely on social media. It also sparked a nationwide conversation on mental well-being.

Because he was so intentional with his words, reading through his social media posts felt like reading lyrics to song he left for us to find. We had to bring his voice back to life and spread a message of hope to the many people still battling mental illness.

The re-emergence of Riky’s voice gripped the attention of the nation and sparked a nationwide mental well-being discussion. Mental illness moved from a taboo subject to the most talked about illness in South Africa.

· Negative sentiment around mental illness decreased by 39% during the campaign.

· The song was played on every major radio station racking up over 90 million rand in free radio play.

· 59 million overall reach in the first two weeks after launch.

· 12 million rands in earned PR.