10 Things You Should Know About Aymos Shili. Aymos is one of the few artists that are building a bridge as amapiano travels and reaches some parts of the world —producers in different regions are adopting and incorporating the sound. At the top of the year, the Thembisa-born vocalist collaborated with Ghana-UK based producer Juls on “Tembisa”, a song he regards as one of his favourite collaborations yet,
Here are 10 things you should know about Aymos:
1 Aymos’s real name is Amos Babili Shili.
2 Aymos was born in a Joburg township called Tembisa.
3 Aymos learnt of his love for music while singing in church as a child, and continues to pay homage to those formative times with the music he makes now.
4 Aymos is known for the hit single ‘Emcimbini’ by the Scorpion Kings. “At that time, I was still new to the amapiano scene. I had just met DJ Maphorisa, and he had asked me to come to the studio. I wanted to prove to them (Scorpion Kings) that I was good for this, I wanna work. I didn’t wanna mess up the opportunity because it was one of my biggest opportunities to be in the mainstream industry and I felt like I really needed to impress them.”
5 Aymos wasn’t always a dance/house vocalist, as he started singing at church.
6 He is set to be 25 years old as of this year.
7 He started being a sessionist and vocalist for local house deejays while releasing his own music, to not much acclaim. When he was close to giving up on music, Mas Musiq came to his house to ask for the “Zaka” vocals after discovering the song on YouTube.
8 At first, Aymos didn’t like amapiano and the idea of his song getting remixed, but he quickly realised he had nothing to lose. And the rest is now history.
9 Aymos says he writes music the same way as he did with Afro-pop. “It’s just that now, what I’ve done is slightly different, it’s just adding a gimmick and repetition here and there.”
10 Making some of his first appearances alongside Samthing Soweto on the ground-breaking “eMcimbini”, as well as on the Mas Musiq-produced Shonamalanga EP, his milestone music video “Zaka” has reached over 2 million views on YouTube, cementing this young muso’s place in the industry.
