Kabza Da Small: “Amapiano Is Jazz & Kwaito”. Amapiano is a South African style of music born from kwaito, a hybrid of deep house, and jazz music. It is distinguished by high-pitched piano melodies, Kwaito basslines, house music and other percussions from another local subgenre of house known as Bacardi. It has a slow deep groove and now consists of vocals which are believed to be first introduced by Kabelo ‘Kabza De Small’ Motha.
Amapiano emerged from the townships of South Africa, particularly Pretoria, where ‘piano king’ was born. Speaking creating amapiano music, Kabza said: “Amapiano is jazz and kwaito, so I mix those sounds together to create amapiano.”
When amapiano was first introduced, not most could see it taking over in the local airwaves for a long time like it still does. Amapiano keen ears in other countries say there is a curiosity and thirst to explore the amapiano culture, and with that being amapiano is only growing as a result of exactly that. “If bad news travels fast, good music travels even faster.
To most it’s a much upgraded sound of deep house music. Think of ‘Umshove’ by Kabza De Small, and other amapiano smash hits that first grabbed Mzansi’s attention during the festive season. South Africans were exposed to the sound last year through the ‘Pusha Skorokoro’ song and fell in love with it, not even knowing what’s it called, and that was when more producers and artists made the best out of the sound. The self-proclaimed king of kwaito Arthur Mafokate also nodded on the existence of amapiano because of kwaito, a revolutionary sound of its time. “Just like trap is to hip hop, amapiano is a sub-genre to kwaito,” he said
