Watch! Maphorisa Visits Primary Schools And Gives Back. Maphorisa, who’s long earned his belt for pumping out hits for almost a decade — from Uhuru’s “Y-tjukutja” and Mafikizolo’s “Khona” to his own “Oncamnce” featuring Stilo Magolide, Kwesta and Zingah has been in the industry for a while now.
DJ Maphorisa took time to give back to his community and blessed Entokozweni Primary School in Soshanguve with his presence and some supplies. The Ba Straata hitmaker arrived at the school and received a hero’s welcome. The children screamed at the top of their lungs with their hands raised. He also performed for them and gave thanks to his foundation, PorryLand. Check it out:
Before teaming up for their debut collaborative record ‘Scorpion Kings’ in 2019, both DJ Maphorisa and Kabza de Small were already being heralded as “godfathers” of the amapiano genre. Maphorisa had been honing in his craft for a decade before the release of his debut solo single: the genre-defining ‘Midnight Starring’ in 2018. After building up his musical profile as part of chart-topping band Uhuru and producing for the likes of Drake, Black Coffee, Major Lazer, Sizwe Alakine and C4 Pedro — he turned to his hand to solo work, dropping a number of platinum-reaching releases, heading on a world tour with Wizkid and even heading up a slot at The Lab LDN earlier this year.
“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.”
