SA Popular DJs Maphorisa Wants To Join The Amapiano Wave. That fastest growing sound, amapiano, is a vibrant and heady mix of deep house, gospel-inspired keyboards and traditional percussion. It’s fun, funky and impossibly cool. Emerging around 2010 in the townships of Pretoria and Johannesburg, the music traces its roots to clubs and the church. One amapiano pioneer and DJ Maphorisa has been hitting up the industry and has one well introducing the amapiano sound and culture to the world.
Amapiano’s journey to the world was also made possible by the same technological force that helped spawn it. South Africans are not the only ones that can’t get enough of the yanos – but the world is also listening. DJ Maphorisa took to his Facebook page saying that he wishes for the likes of DJ Shimza, Heavy K, and Black Coffee to play amapiano on their platforms which has international audiences. “i wish Shimza,Heavy k le Bo Black Coffee ba dlale amapiano it will mean a alot for the movement ya Amapiano,” Phori wrote.
Speaking on what motivated him to invest in amapiano, Maphorisa said: “With my gigs, I wanted to understand people’s reactions to this new sound because amapiano was underground. What really sparked my interest in the genre was that, at the time, I was looking to get into something that originated in South Africa. Amapiano is part of kwaito and dance music. When I started working with Afrobeats, which hails from Western Africa, I felt that we didn’t have a sound that strongly represented South Africa. When I started paying close attention to amapiano, I knew that this was a sound that would take South Africa to the world. There’s a lot that you can do with amapiano — you can make it soulful, funky, dusty and hard or jazz it up.”
