Lady Du Opens Up About Industry Gatekeepers And Newbies. Lady Du real name Dudu Ngwenya, is currently one of the most featured vocalist. Though she made songs with renowned producers such as DJ Clock, DJ Mshega and DJ Maphorisa (back when he still did gqom) in 2013, 2014 and 2018 respectively, her breakthrough only came under a year ago through the track “Superstar”, alongside revered amapiano deejay and producer Mr JazziQ.
Amapiano is one of the biggest genre right now, and it has no gatekeepers as even newbies are succeeding within the genre. “It’s sooo easy to succeed now, the gate keepers of the industry don’t have the power anymore. We are lead by social media and the youth. We have sooo much power to take over the world, we need to help each other. Find one person to help,” Lady Du tweeted on the genre not having gatekeepers.
Further explaining how amapiano does not have any gatekeepers, Ladu Du said: “We’re literally running the genre as we see fit. Nobody is dictating anything to us! There is none of that old-school way of doing things where you need to know someone in power for your song to be played on radio. At some point, my song was not playing on a particular radio station but now it’s sitting at number one on that very radio station. How amazing?”
Lady Du recent revealed that she ha 19 qualifications, and she has been trying to break int the music industr for a while. She continues to share her story on social media to motivate other people. “My music story is one for the books, I am not lucky, I did not chance a hit, I did not pay anyone, didn’t ask for favours, wasn’t spoon fed. I worked, blood, sweat and tears for extactly 21 years. Studying in between so if it doesn’t work out I have something to fall back on,” she tweeted.
Speaking on blowing up during amapiano, Lady Du said: “It’s funny that I popped because of amapiano. When “Superstar” was released, I had been working with JazziQ for a while. We have a few deep house tracks that we released together! My dad and JazziQ’s uncle are business partners so he’s more of a brother to me. “Superstar” was actually the last song I had planned to do. I had so many scars from having previously tried to launch my music career and felt like it was time to give up. I now know some of the celebrities I sang about on “Superstar” personally. The funniest story is that on “Superstar” I mention my actor fiance Andile Maxaka, but we hadn’t even met him when I wrote it. It’s true what they say about speaking things into existence — I wrote the song two years ago and I only met Andile last year [chuckles].”
