Kabza & Maphorisa On The Future Of Their Collaboration As ‘Scorpion Kings’. Since 2019’s Scorpion Kings, the colossal amapiano album that introduced us to his musical partnership with amapiano pioneer Kabza De Small, Maphorisa has been releasing quality music at a frantic pace. His foray into amapiano has been nothing short of spectacular. The ease with which he’s made the transition is unsurprising.
Maphorisa met with Kabza a few years ago, and it has been history since then. “Live gigs helped me evolve and stay on top of things on the streets. Before organising a gig, I would always ask: “Who’s popping? What’s going on? What’s new on the scene?” Once in 2018, before doing a show in Soweto, I asked, “Who’s upcoming?” And the streets responded with a conclusive, “Stokie and Kabza”. So I booked them,” Maphorisa said.
Maphorisa: We both always working as individuals and as a duo, there are a few projects in the pipeline. Our Sonar 6 hour is a first and I’m super excited about that. Here at home, we are about to host a crazy three-day festival that was due to take place before lockdown. But from us you can always expect our music as individuals and as a duo to start new musical Amapiano trends.
Kabza: All I can say is I always know we will be cooking in the studio, we spend so much time curating and trying to be at the forefront of the genre. Travelling the world together is definitely something I’m excited about – we used to talk about days like this. Travelling at home and abroad is so different. I can’t wait.
Together with Kabza, he’s pioneered an unusual way of releasing music where they “leak” unreleased music on blogs and file sharing platforms like Datafilehost, then only once the music has been embraced by the masses do they put it out on streaming platforms. It helps them figure out what songs are worth a concerted push and investment. That’s how songs such as Bopha and Adiwele, two of the year’s biggest hits, took off.
