AK Swift   (USA)

AKA : A.K.-S.W.I.F.T.
EuroDance member
Added : 24/01/2000
21523

90

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Latest AK Swift news

05/08/2023 : The mystery around the rap sample used in Asō Mamiko Drive Me Crazy To Love (as well as many songs for video games) was finally solved by Uncanny X ! The voice belongs to Magic Affair's former rapper AK Swift

12/08/2019 : Timi Kullai will team with Chrizz Morisson and former Magic Affair rapper AK Swift on forthcoming single In The Middle Of The Night, a rework of Magic Affair's hit with new raps verses written by AK... (Thanks to Krasi)

24/07/2019 : Discover the videoclip for Sheila Messina featuring AK Swift's new single No Fuck. Videoclip was directed an filmed by Patrick Clark.

06/05/2019 : AK Swift will be featured on one song of his son's album Sharif vs Malik (Thanks to Krasi)

27/02/2019 : Former Magic Affair rapper A.K. Swift shot the videoclip of his new single No Fuck, a collaboration with Sheila Messina.

10/11/2018 : On December 7th, next J.O.Y.C.E. feat. A.K. Swift single Get 2Gether will be out and it is once again an amazing eurodance song. (Thanks to Krasi)

19/09/2018 : AK Swift's next single will be entitled Player Code and it will feature Rochest. It is planned for September 21st (Thanks to Tavi Meran)

More news

AK Swift albums

13 (never released)

2004

BUY X

AK Swift singles

	Light In Me	14th Apr 1997	BUY X
	In The Game	18th Aug 1997	BUY X
	The Professionnal	Aug 1998	BUY X
	It's On (with Mazaya)	4th Oct 1999	BUY X
	Do U Wanna Die	May 2000	BUY X
	You Know The Names (vs BBL Allstars)	5th Mar 2001	BUY X
	Here We Come (Feat. Frankfurt Galaxy)	16th Jun 2003	BUY X
	Pussycat	2004	BUY X
	I Growl (Step Back) (never released)	2005	BUY X
	Player Code (feat. Rochest)	12th Oct 2018	BUY X

Featurings and collaborations

	Big 6 - Oh No		BUY X
	Playstations - Bust-A-Groove		BUY X
	True Minds - Underground Prophet	1991	BUY X
	Cella Dwellas - Rugged Discipline	1993	BUY X
	Cella Dwellas - Hip-Hop Hurra Rap Gegen Rechts	1993	BUY X
	Jazz Con Bazz - Evolution Of A Mindflow	1993	BUY X
	MBO - For Your Love	1994	BUY X
	The Club - It's A Love Thing	1994	BUY X
	Magic Affair - In The Middle Of The Night	1994	BUY X
	The Club - It's A Love Thing	1994	BUY X
	Magic Affair - Omen III	14th Jan 1994	BUY X
	Magic Affair - Give Me All Your Love	May 1994	BUY X
	Magic Affair - Omen... The Story Continues (album)	16th May 1994	BUY X
	Magic Affair - In The Middle Of The Night	16th Jul 1994	BUY X
	Magic Affair - Fire	29th Oct 1994	BUY X
	Blaxone ft. Franca Morgano - Good Times	1995	BUY X
	Aso Mamiko - Drive Me Crazy To Love	7th Apr 1995	BUY X
	Toni Cottura - Party Boom	12th Feb 1997	BUY X
	Cloud 9 - You Spin Me Round	1999	BUY X
	Simon Collins - One Nation	2005	BUY X
	Simon Collins - Sunburn	2005	BUY X
	Magic Affair - Stigmata (Of Love)	21st Oct 2008	BUY X
	Struggle da Preacher, Young Noble - 365 Grind	15th Jun 2014	BUY X
	Struggle da Preacher - Still...	3rd Apr 2015	BUY X
	Will G ft. BG the Prince of Rap - Why Can't We	29th Nov 2017	BUY X
	JOYCE (2) - Let the Rhythm Take Control	18th Apr 2018	BUY X
	JOYCE (2) - Get 2gether	7th Dec 2018	BUY X
	Chrizz Morisson ft. Timi Kullai - In The Middle Of The Night	11th Oct 2019	BUY X

Songwriting

	The Club - It's A Love Thing	1994	BUY X
	Magic Affair - Omen III	14th Jan 1994	BUY X
	Magic Affair - In The Middle Of The Night	16th Jul 1994	BUY X

Aliases - Records released under other names

AK the Panther - Whassup!!

2001

BUY X

AK Swift biography

Burnell Keith Herring JR was born on 15th of July 1969 in Chicago. His father Burnell Keith Herring Sr was working in the army so they travelled a lot. His mother is called Cornelia. She spent the second half of his childhood in Arkansas, then, as AK was 13 years old, his family moved to Frankfurt. At the age of 15, he began to dance. He also learned viola, violin, cello, and contra bass, and also got involved in his school's Concert Orchestra. Then he was promoted to the Symphony Orchestra within six months, which got him 1st and 2nd chair honors, and participated in three state competition's.

His first pseudonym was BK, but people called him 'Burger King' or 'British Knights' so he changed the first letter and added 'Swift' because it sounded good. Another explanation of his name can be found on his official website : an acronym meaning Asiatic Knowledge Swinging With Incredible Force Totally.

In 1983 (years after his introduction to the hip-hop culture) AK got involved with a Frankfurt based breakdance group called Floor Masters, learned the art of DJing, and continued to perfect his rapping and writing skills.

Back in the US, he entered the army but he did not stay very long because he could not stand the officers' racism and absurd disciplin. In 1990 he left the army and works as a DJ and a break-dancer. Then came 2 years of misery : he divorced from his wife, lost his job and became homeless. He has a son also called AK, who lives with his mother in Germany.

After coming a long way, he began a score of releases, beginning with Underground Prophet, under the name of True Minds feat. B.K. Swift in 1991. He also did studio sessions without being credited, for instance for the samples compilation Masterbits: Rapsody Vocals Vol. 2 produced by Bernd Waldstädt. Among the 7 samples he performed for this record, the "Causing much mayhem, dropping drama" sample was massively used in video games but also in the eurodance song Drive Me Crazy by Aso Mamiko..

Then he took part to the Cella Dwellas group as rapper and co-producer in 1993. From this collaboration, 2 singles were released : Rugged Discipline and Hip-Hop Hurra Rap Gegen Rechts. Still in 1993, his voice was featured by Jazz Con Bazz for the track Evolution Of A Mindflow.

Then AK was noticed by the producer Mike Staab, and became Magic Affair's rapper between 1994 and February 1995. The first time he saw Franca Morgano his partner, he found her so tiny (AK is 1,83 m tall), but was very impressed by the force of her voice. The cohabitation between the 2 members of the group was not always easy : AK was shocked by the way Franca was dressed on the scene, and he found her too nervous. They argued so much that AK left the band, but the rapper who replaced him didn't fit so finally he came back.

In 1996, after he was finally fired from Magic Affair, AK released a single Shake That Ass with the group C-Block.

Then he released with Franca Morgano a cover of Chic's song Good Times under the name of Blaxone. He signed under the Booya Records label and did a rap on Toni Cottura's Party Boom single, after that he had hits with his own project A.K. S.W.I.F.T. In spite of irregular success, AK kept on releasing singles. After Light In Me, he released In The Game. The song featured Will Williams, it was composed and produced by Bülent Aris, Tony Cottura and co-produced by Daisy Dee. The video was shot in Miami, and reached Top 40. AK also did a debut in Germany's hit movie 14 tage lebenslanglich.

A.K also participated in the charitable Big Basketball Challenge with stars like Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, DJ Bobo, Masterboy, and Nana. Which all of the proceeds went to a cancer research fund for children, the event was organised by Hand-in-Hand concept. Due to differences between AK and Booya-Music, AK decided to go his seperate way.

Later in 1997 AK produced a Breakbeat track for the inline skater Dirk Auer to celebrate his World Record. The song was called Pick Up The Speed , the project name was Inline featuring rapper Mad Flava.

In 1998 AK teamed up with Rico Sparx, Alley Cat, and Greg MCcoy, the result was entitled The Professionnal (featuring Will Williams, Leidra Jones and Kosta Wilson as vocalists). He also recorded So In Love With You which was never released. He did a guest rap appearance on Playstations' single Bust-A-Groove, and was featured by Cloud 9 on the single You Spin Me Round.

In 1999 AK came back to Booya and recorded the track It's On (with Mazaya feat. Craig Smart), which reached # 75 on the German charts. Then a track called Do U Wanna Die was scheduled to be released in mid-May 2000.

2001 : AK has signed a deal with In-Motion AG record label Bookmark and released You Know The Names vs. s.Oliver BBL Allstars (Basketball Bundesliga) on March 5, 2001. This song is the official Hymn for the Basketball Bundesliga. His first album was planned for the Autumn 2001 but it was never released.

2003 : A.K.did a comeback in June, with the single Here We Come, that he co-produced with Paul Schulte. This track was released under Bellaphon Records, for the European NFL team Frankfurt Galaxy (who became World Bowl Champions shortly afterwards), featuring raps from A.K and team member Calvin Spears, with support vocals from Preshuz T, Chris Pointer and The Galaxy Cheerleaders. AK also appeared on the track Who's Next Large's debut album Larger Than Life, the song Oh No from the German rapper Big 6 debut album, and two songs on Simon Collins (Phil Collins' son) album.

2004 : in the beginning of the year, AK created his own label, called Hoodkatz. He started working with his former collaborators Danny Sullivan and Martin Prodwhiz again. The result of their efforts was the single Pussycat, released during the summer. The solo album should be soon released and the name is going to be 13.

May 29th, A.K. performed in Saarbrücken with the group Large for the discotheque Kufa birthday party. October 29th, he performed his soon to be released single I Growl (Step Back) with his new DJ "Deviate" at the discotheque Nachtsicht in Heidelberg. It is not clear wether the single was finally released or not.

AK'd rather be considered as a poet than a rapper. He likes basketball, body-building and football. Is also a big movie fan with over 1000 movies in his private collection. He sends money each month to his family who stayed in the US. He describes himself as a complicated man. He usually wears sneakers and clothes designed by Karl Kani (an American streetwear designer). He likes chinese food. His favourite artists are Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He hates George Bush. He listens to many hard-rock groups. He has a son called Anthony Joshua.

AK's future plans are to produce other artists, and to become an actor.

2005 : AK Swift and DJ Deviate formed a team called the Trak Predatorz, DJing in the disco Funkadelik in Frankfurt one Wednesday and one Friday a month.

2007 : AK produced and performed 2 songs : the single I Growl (Step Back), featuring Iz, and the single I Wanna Pusssycat featuring My Linh, for the German movie Madonnas (aka "Madonnen"). He toured with Ayman, and the Eastside Famlee, in Dormagen (Germany).

2008 : Magic Affair got back together and released a remix of Omen III under label Balloon Records in Austria, and did a tour there to promote it. AK also started his commercial acting debut for Lindy Electronics (a new cable company), and Avia (Fuel resource), unfortunately he had no spoken parts.

2009 : AK and Franca were asked to perform at the RTL Ultimative Chartshow in Köln (Germany). While working on the new Magic Affair album, AK is also producing his A.K.-S.W.I.F.T. album titled Chronicles of a Ghetto Ninja. He is als the chairman of his own productions KNIGHTZ INC., producing artists in many styles such as Hip-Hop, R&B, Pop, Latino, and House.

2014 : AK teamed with Struggle da Preacher and Young Noble to release single 365 Grind

2015 : he released a second hip hop single with Struggle da Preacher entitled Still...

2016 : AK Swift announced that he was back with a new single called Reigning Day, planned for March and featuring Peabo, but it seems that it was finally not released. An EP should have followed in May 2016. He is also producing a new dance act together with producer Bernd Waldstädt. He appeared in a few small roles in a couple of independent films. He also became a columnist for Mittelpunkt-Zeitung, interviewing music artists for his column Rise of the 90’s

2017 : AK Swift teamed with Lorenza Maluku to create new dance project M.A. (Mystic Arts). AK and Janina were featured on Philipp Tesarek's project J.O.Y.C.E. Let The Rhythm Take Control, a real eurodance song.

/2019 : AK teamed with Timi Kullai and Chrizz Morisson to record a new version of Magic Affair's hit In The Middle Of The Night with new raps verses written by AK.

2024 : he was featured as a stage rapper by Snap! for Venoge festival

Starclub magazine
AK Swift's official website and Myspace
Eurodancehits
Thanks to Vision and Anton "MC Ka$per" Skaletsky

AK Swift biography was last updated Fri, April 27th 2018

Charts (singles)

It's On	#75

Links to AK Swift

Partner shops

Concert tickets