“I Produced 40% Of Scorpion Kings’ First Album” – Vigro Deep Reveals How The Duo Betrayed Him. The 21-year old DJ and producer had grown up listening to British club music or Chicago house alongside South African classics. The reality is quite different, and the only explanation possible is that Vigro Deep is some kind of prodigy. Born in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, Kamogelo Phetla actually started music with the goal of being a rapper. In 2018, while watching his dad, a founder of the Godfathers of Deep House collective, compose music on Fruity Loops, he decided to give it a try with the genre making waves in his school: amapiano.
Vigro revealed that he met Maphorisa even before Kabza met him, and even before Scorpion Kings became a duo. “I produced 40% of Scorpion Kings’ first album. Remember the song Vula Vala? Yes, that’s my sound. So I started working with Phori, he went overseas and said the song was dope based on the reaction. However, when they dropped the album I wasn’t told anything about it,” he said, However, Vigro said he was reimbursed and then credited, making him also earn from the plaques. “I did eventually get included,” he added.
Four years later, the apprentice has become a pillar in his country and has earned the respect of global electronic music superstars such as Skrillex or DJ Snake. His sound is not the mellow and loungy amapiano you will play to relax on a Sunday; based on ultra-dark chords, tense and nervous melodies, shocking breaks and powerful sub-bass, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear it in a Berlin underground club or at the Dour alternative music festival. His latest album, Far Away From Home (2021), released following the “Baby Boy” project series, aptly named, leading him to a European tour through Amsterdam, London and all the cities known for appreciating dance music. Fresh from a gig organized by the Amapiano France collective, we had a chat with the South African wonder-kid.
Speaking on his dad being a musician, Vivgro said he was inspired by him. “I feel like he probably was afraid to put me into music. He kept on saying I had to go to school. But I was learning Fruity Loops watching him. Whenever he was gone I would go in the room and do my things until he got me a laptop. He didn’t show me that much music, but he was surprised because he never thought I would be this good. One day we were running a campaign for a politician, so they had to assemble voices and they needed amapiano. I did a quick amapiano track and gave it to him. He was blown away. The next morning he called his friend, and we decided to all push it. “
