Somto BisinaSouth Africa’s youngest and fastest-growing electronic music movement, Amapiano, is hitting continental airwaves, fast becoming a mainstream disruptor, even in the global arena.
This hypnotizing sound called ‘Amapiano’ forcefully demands notice and acceptance, as a growing number of people now move their bodies to this Zulu sound. Originating from South Africa, Amapiano has gone from being just a sound to a global movement and culture.
What is Amapiano?
Wikipedia describes Amapiano as a Zulu word, meaning ‘the pianos’. It is a South African hybrid of music genres like house, jazz, and lounge music. These are characterized by synths, airy pads, and wide percussive melodies.
Amapiano is the youngest sibling in the South African musical family – distinguished by its high-pitched piano melodies, Kwaito basslines, low-tempo 90s South African house rhythms, and percussions from another local subgenre of the house, known as Bacardi.
Origin of Amapiano
Various accounts as to who formed the popular genre make it impossible to accurately pinpoint its origins. Although the genre gained popularity in Katlehong the township East of Johannesburg, there has been a lot of debate concerning the origin of the sound.
“If you put one hundred guys in a room and you asked them where AmaPiano started, you’ll get one hundred answers and some very heated debates,” Siphiwe Ngwenya, cofounder of the South African label Born in Soweto told Spotify.
However, the creation of this genre has been attributed to Mdu aka TRP. On the ‘originator’, Amapiano pioneer Kabza De Small said: “I don’t know what happened, I don’t know how he figured out the log drum. Amapiano has always been there, but he is the one that added the log drum. Young people like experimenting, they always want to find new plug-ins, so when MDU found it, he ran with it and it became a thing”.
Amapiano In Nigeria
Popularized by the likes of Kabza de Small, DJ Maphorisa, Focalistic, Oskido, and other South African music heavyweights, the genre of music has enjoyed massive acceptance all over Africa, especially in Nigeria since the last quarter of 2020.
Although not many Nigerians, know that some elements of Amapiano have been in Nigeria, under the Afro-House genre, the two genres share similarities. Niniola has been making use of the Afro-house sound since 2017 when she released her debut album, This Is Me, which has 1.7 million streams on Spotify.
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Since 2017, Amapiano has been used by many Nigerian artists Like;
Falz
Folarin Falana aka Falz released the Amapiano single Squander featuring the Queen of Afro-house music, Niniola, in December 2020. The remix followed a few months later featuring South Africa’s Amapiano sensations, Kamo Mphela, Mpura, and SayFar alongside, Niniola. On his reason for jumping on the Amapiano sound, he said:
“I love South Africa, I love the culture and the food. I am excited about this remix with Kamo Mphela, Mpura & Sayfar because it’s a great blend of South African & Nigerian music. Like the first song with Niniola, this is sure to keep you on your feet. Kamo Mphela & Mpura were the best people to complement the song giving it that full amapiano sound because of their distinct, yet beautiful voices.”
DJ Kaywise
In 2020, the Amapiano-influenced single, High Way featuring Nigerian rapper, Phyno, found mainstream success. With its stellar audio production by Yung Willis and over a million audio streams, the music video has over 3 million views on YouTube.
Zinoleesky
Zinoleesky’s 2020 release, Kilofeshe, is viewed as one of the best Amapiano takes from a Nigerian artist. The song was able to amass over 3 million streams on Spotify and YouTube respectively, and as of February 2021, was amongst the Top 10 Songs in Nigeria for Apple Music.
Rexxie
His KPK (Ko Por Ke) single featuring Moh Bad is a typical example of an Amapiano sound that fused Nigerian Street Hop. Released in December 2020, this song has quickly become a street anthem, generating over 10 million combined streams from multiple platforms.
Asake
Since the release of Omo Ope, Asake has continued to notch musical successes as he rapidly ascends through the ranks and harnesses his powers fully. With many people accepting his sound, some South African stars might have been slightly threatened.
On Sunday, September 11, 2022, South African artist, Bandz posted a screenshot of a post of DBN Gogo where she shared her concern over what can be easily termed as the continuous dominance of Amapiano by Nigerian artists. The post was likely motivated by Asake’s recently released album ‘Mr. Money With The Vibe’ which had a decent selection of Amapiano songs.
“We are in big trouble if we don’t start moving collectively and forcing our way into the right doors. Lol, it’s gonna be taken right in front of us. And don’t get me wrong, his album is so good. iyho. That’s the problem.” she said.
Amapiano’s Future In Nigeria
This is not the first time Nigeria has tapped into a popular ‘foreign’ sound. Back in the early 00s, Congo’s makossa, was made famous by the likes of Koffi Olomide and Awilo Logomba. Ghana’s Azonto wave was also largely appropriated.
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Artists like Davido, Burna Boy, Wizkid, and Naira Marley have already started to take advantage of the sound by collaborating with South African artists. This in a sense helps preserve the genre while also offering a new frontier for the industry and scope for growth.
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