DJ Maphorisa On How It’s Like Working With Vocalists Like Samthing Soweto And Sha Sha. Amapiano pioneer DJ Maphorisa is a man of many talents, one of them, which most of his industry peers say, has the ability to take an Afro-pop or RnB singer and put them on a piano song and make it a hit. He has successfully done so with the likes of Samthing Soweto, TRESSOR, Focalistic, and many others.
Though he is one of a few people to put vocals on amapiano, he has made countless hits with vocalists and even made amapiano with vocals a thing. Speaking on working with Sha Sha and Samthing Soweto, Maphorisa said: “I think it was chemistry. The energy was really good. When we dropped the very first Scorpion Kings album, I snapped and said, ‘We’ve got seven good songs, we’re releasing this thing!’ I didn’t even consult Kabza because he would have told me to wait. On the first Scorpion Kings album, there was only one melodic song. At the time, amapiano producers were switching things up — from Kabza’s ‘Umshove’ came De Mthuda with ‘Shesha Geza’. That was the first melodic amapiano song.”
“Before then, amapiano was more kwaito-ish rapping and chanting, and no real singing. The switch-up meant that everyone could now sing on amapiano. Then we did “Amantombazane” with Samthing Soweto and injected some soul into the genre. This song became another game-changer, and every amapiano producer went back to studio and started using more vocalists. On the same album, we had “Vula Vala” featuring Nokwazi and Vigro Deep,” he added.
Singer and sogwriter Samthing Soweto joined forces with The Scorpion Kings(DJ Maphorisa, Kabza De Small) and vocalist Shasha to drop the once trended track titled Akulaleki. This comes after the Afro-pop/soul singer then, officially tapped into the amapiano scene, and gaining even more attention.
