Watch! Maphorisa Reveals When He Fell In Love With Amapiano. Themba Sonnyboy Sekowe, popularly known by his stage name DJ Maphorisa, has since his introduction to the music industry blessed us with jams such as Ngud’, Midnight Starring, Suited, Particula, Ngempela, Jazabel among others. Today, he is the pioneer of the hottest and biggest genre in South Africa right now.
Maphorisa shared that he fell in love with amapiano back in the days when he was still making gqom and afrobeat music. He then saw an opportunity to grow and experiment with the sound and he took it. “At some point, I knew that gqom would reach its sell-by date because it was fast-paced and dark. I find that once a genre becomes dark, the songs end up sounding the same. Gqom was dope but I also felt like it was, only, for certain people. However, with amapiano, I realised quite early on that there was a lot that we could do with it.”
In an interview he had early last year, Phori detailed why he invested so much in amapiano. “With my gigs, I wanted to understand people’s reactions to this new sound because amapiano was underground. What really sparked my interest in the genre was that, at the time, I was looking to get into something that originated in South Africa. Amapiano is part of kwaito and dance music. When I started working with Afrobeats, which hails from Western Africa, I felt that we didn’t have a sound that strongly represented South Africa. When I started paying close attention to amapiano, I knew that this was a sound that would take South Africa to the world. There’s a lot that you can do with amapiano — you can make it soulful, funky, dusty and hard or jazz it up.”
Check out the interview below:
