Who are the best Amapiano producers?

 

Since its rise to prominence in 2016 Amapiano has been a uniquely South African house music genre, widely shared across messaging platforms, app and forums alike. Crediting it’s foundation, or birth, early innovators or pioneers is a hard thing to pin down but the list of big names now dominates the streaming platforms of the mainstream, with names such as Kabza De Small and Mfr Souls perhaps the biggest names inspiring a growing wave of bedroom producers and DJ’s - moving the sound forwards into more global awareness.

 

For the unaware, AmaPiano’s sound is influenced by Kwaito, the midtempo, lyrically rich blend of R&B, hip-hop, and house that emerged from Gaunteng in the ’90s. Both genres combine the drum patterns and basslines of their 4/4 cousins, but AmaPiano is marked out by its brightness, jazz keys, vocal cuts and organ touches built upon a laid-back 115 bpm framework.

With so many producers and Dj’s now trail blazing for Amapiano who are the best names to check out and enjoy? Here’s a few of my picks…

 

Kabza De Small

2019’s most stream South African artist, Kabaza De Small has flavours of AtJazz meets Lars Behrenroth -  in that the low tempo, African house rhythms and percussive layers fuse with vocals - spoke and beautiful African chants. The grooves and addictive and have you moving in time before you know it. His brand new album, which cam out late November 2019, ‘The Return of the Scorpion Kings', with DJ Maphorisa is well worth checking out if that Afro-rhythms house vibe is your thing.

 

MFR Souls

MFR Souls are from the East Rand, Katlehong, aka Maero and Force Reloaded who also run Deep Resolute record label.

 

Gaba Cannal

Khaka Yena aka Gaba Cannal is a self-taught versatile music producer and Dj who started his music career as a hip hop producer and a pianist. Gaba Cannal started producing house music at the age of 18, soon after co-founding TSG ConSoul project with two other Katlehong based Djs.

 

Bantu Elements

From Johannesburg, Gauteng and is DJ/producer with a Metro FM regular show, followers of his Facebook page get lots of links to download mixes but like so many of these Amapiano producers their social media profiles don’t have a great deal of info.

 

Luu Nineleven

Hails from Soweto, Gauteng and runs Waltz Music Group record label.

 

DJ Maphorisa

Frequent collaborator with Kabza de Small, DJ Maphorisa (aka Themba Sonnyboy Sekowe) is known as a record producer with a blend of house music and afropop, he has worked with and has received production credits from several notable artists including Wizkid, Kwesta, Uhuru, Drake, Black Coffee, Major Lazer, Runtown, C4 Pedro Era Istrefi, to name a few.

 

Loxion Deep

Loxion Deep (Johannesburg, South Africa) was a house music band formed in 2009 but these days is a solo act of n”Simphiwe”.

 

Samthing Soweto

A man with a truly inspiring back story or success from a troubled youth. He gained mainstream attention from his feature on record producer, Sun-El Musician's acclaimed song "Akanamali", released in 2017 but his singing talents really came about during his stay in a youth detention where he was encouraged to sing by his fellow inmates. The singer, song writer and collaborators second album was released on 20 September 2019, recording the highest number of users "pre-adding" the album on the streaming service, Apple Music South Africa, before the release of the album.

 

De Mthuda

A producer and Dj  De Mthuda made a name for himself through the AmaPiano series, curated by the purveyors of the sub-genre - Born In Soweto and House Afrika. He runs CCA record label

 

Cassper Nyovest

Cassper Nyovest is a South African rapper, dancer, songwriter, entrepreneur and record producer and is regarded as one of the most successful artists in South Africa. In 2014, he established his own record label, Family Tree Records