Is Kabza De Small Changing Music Genres? Kabelo Petrus Motha, better known by his stage name Kabza De Small, is a South African DJ and record producer. He started making music at a young age but broke into fame following his collaboration with DJ Maphorisa as ‘Scorpion Kings’. He was born in Mpumalanga and raised in Pretoria, where amapiano first originated. He has been referred to as the ‘King of Amapiano’ following his timeless amapiano tracks.
He is one of the amapino pioneers who have revolutionalised the amapiano sound to make it sound as better as it does today. Amapiano is a hybrid of deep house, kwaito, jazz and lounge music characterized by synths, airy pads and wide and percussive basslines. With other artists from Hip Hop, Gqom, Kwaito and so forth, Kabza De Small has decided to break sound boundaries and explore new music sounds by fusing amapiano with maskandi. The clip of the famous artist in studio was shared on Twitter by @ReaDaSoul. See video:
Maskandi is a kind of Zulu folk music that is evolving with South African society. Ethekwini Online describes it as “The music played by the man on the move, the modern minstrel, today’s troubadour. It is the music of the man walking the long miles to court a bride, or to meet with his Chief; a means of transport. It is the music of the man who sings of his real life experiences, his daily joys and sorrows, his observations of the world. It’s the music of the man who’s got the Zulu blues.” Although the genre has been in existence for many years, after the 90’s there seemed to be no real interest shown in the music by youths and young musicians due to the large influences of western and pop culture.
On his(Scorpion Kings) latest album featuring Congolese artist TRESOR, they were making amapiano for the broader African market and the evolution of amapiano. The journey to explore new sounds within the amapiano scene is still on.
