Maphorisa Collaborated With Afrikaans Hip-Hop Star Jack Parow. Any music collab is when two artists or creatives get together to create something new. This invariably results in something way better than they might have made alone. It’s an amalgamation of both artists’ talents, techniques and knowledge – in one tune.
Parow and Maphorisa, the common feature seemed a bit distant. How do you merge the powerful Amapiano style of the sounds of the kasi – a combination of deep house, throbbing basslines and jazzy lounge music – with the hard-rapping expletive-laden style of Afrikaans innovator, Jack Parow?
Jack Parow is a bit of a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, to borrow from Churchill, but he does like to jol: his work doesn’t venture down political lines all that much, but more along the lines of parties, happy hours and brandy and coke. When asked how to describe his music, he narrowed it down to this simple phrase, “Rap music that you can braai to but also naai to.”
Very much a unique sound, but other notable artists do make similar music, so who does Parow look up to? “I don’t look up to many people,” said Parow. “I’m pretty tall, but definitely Eben Etzebeth, Lood de Jager… pretty much any lock.”
It’s a mixture of jazzy tunes and deep and progressive house music… it’s fun, it’s chilled and the vibe is contagious.It also has its own evolution and subgenres. “There’s the jazzy side, where it’s just instrumental, and we have soulful Amapiano with voices,” explains Maphorisa. “There’s a tech piano version with more claps and snaps.”
On paper, Amapiano seems not an ideal partner for Parow’s wildness and penchant for vloeking. So how did Parow feel about the collab between Amapiano and Afrikaans hip-hop? “It was probably a bit of a foreign concept to me at first because it’s never been done,” said Parow. “Still, I knew Porri and his style, and I knew we would make it work, and we did. “Literally, the first beat that was made, we jumped on and were done and dusted!”
