Maphorisa Details How He Begged Samthing Soweto To Feature On ‘Emcimbini’. Born Themba Sonnyboy Sekowe, the 34-year-old has mastered the art of maintaining relevance not only by staying abreast of sonic trends, but also by finding clever ways to keep the public engaged. That spirit, and his exceptional talent, has allowed him to stay on top of his game for the best part of a decade now.
Madumane is, of course, DJ Maphorisa’s alter ego, a name conjured up to extend his reach and separate the producer/DJ from the vocalist. DJ Maphorisa has left tweeps confused attempting to shed light on why he and Kabza De Small took the hit single eMcimbini from Mas Musiq. A clip of the amapiano star during an Instagram live video surfaced on social media, with Maphorisa’s comments about Mas Musiq. “Mas used to be selfish, and unfortunately eMcimbini, why we took it. Why Kabza and I took eMcimbini was because it had a saga. It had saga why? Mas Musiq sampled Samthing Soweto’s afro beat song. We played that song at Live [Amp]”
“Then when we played it at Live [Amp], Samthing Soweto freaked asking why are the boys sampling me … I begged Samthing Soweto telling him that the song is big. I then thought Kabza and I should take it and he should add a verse,” he said.
Maphorisa first shot to fame in 2013 as part of the multifarious musical group, Uhuru. The group blew up off the anthemic Y-Tjukutja in 2013, which owned the summer. That same year, Uhuru further enhanced its reputation by producing and featuring on Mafikizolo’s chart-topping, multi award-winning hit single, Khona.A couple years later, in 2016, a year after the group’s decision to pursue solo careers, Maphorisa landed the dream placement when was enlisted to produce on Drake’s One Dance featuring Wizkid and Kyla. The dancehall and afrobeats-leaning single took off almost immediately, and within a year it was the most streamed song of all time.