Music
Three Amapiano producers building the new sound
Amapiano's use of vocals has made some producers and vocalists household names over the last five years but a return to a percussion-heavy instrumental sound is set to dominate the future.
A year ago, the streets and the airwaves agreed that Amapino had transitioned from the underground, taken over mainstream broadcast, created household names and become the definitive sound for this era in South African music. In the short time since younger producers and DJs, mostly new to the industry have been moulding the future of the Amapiano sound and gaining recognition for it.
The townships around Pretoria (or greater Pitori area) have produced some of the most recognisable Amapiano songs and artists over the past five years. Most recently, a crop of producers has developed a recognisably Pitori variant of Piano that is gaining recognition.
If Amapiano were a house in a typical South African township, it would be the second house from the corner with Deep House as its front opposite neighbour, diBacardi its back opposite, Kwaito and Jazz its adjacent neighbours. Other sounds unique to South Africa have either established their longevity or exhausted their lifespans. There is a solid foundation laid for Amapiano and its walls are in the making.
These are the three producers building a new sound from the ground up.
Vigro Deep
© Setumo-Thebe Mohlomi
Vigro Deep
The most recognisable young Pitori producer to break into the mainstream, Vigro Deep’s career has been moulded from early on at home. Born Kamogelo Phetla, his father is Victor “DJ Spring” Ngcongwana, one-half of the seminal Godfathers of House duo. At eighteen, Vigro Deep’s catalogue of hits coming off his "Untold Story", "Baby Boy I, II and III" projects (and a string of bootlegs and remixes of each) have made him a staple of the scene. Untold Story broke the Atteridgeville Pitori producer and onto the map nationally and Baby Boy propelled him beyond the boundaries of Pitori. Eight days after dropping "Baby Boy III", Vigro Deep toured the album in the UK, testing the sound on international audiences.
The Lowkeys
© Setumo-Thebe Mohlomi
The Lowkeys
After meeting and forming The Lowkeys in 2016, the trio decided to abandon rap after an Amapiano experiment took with listeners. “We decided to make an Amapiano song, shared it on Whatsapp and it trended in our hood. From our hood, it went viral. Amapiano is our lifestyle in general besides the PR and the TV.”
“Are kokoti re roba monyako”, is the refrain you will hear Mongezi Mashabela scream over The Lowkeys’ progressive drum patterns and entrancing synths produced by pianist Lethabo Monyai and DJ Ofentse Gama. The refrain means we are no longer knocking, we are breaking the door down. Their sound is a few clicks away from “commercial” Amapiano, some pitch bends in the direction of breakbeat and Afro Tech House, in the trail of marching bands polar in Pitori and still in the vicinity of Jazz’s soloing tradition. With a collaborative album with DJ Sumbody, The Lowkeys are ones to watch.
Thebelebe Onalenna
© Supplied
Thebelebe Onalenna
Growing up in Pheli (Atteridgeville township and surrounds in Pretoria), this 20-year-old producer had two brothers who were DJs and guided him into music. After years of producing music, gigging and shooting self-funded videos, Thebelebe woke up one morning with a hit on his hands.
"Jebson", the song which became a viral sensation after a woman was recorded dancing and blowing a whistle to it, has been Thebelebe’s first major hit and grabbed the ears of South Africans. The sound he developed has Jazz, deep house, dibicardi and other references that most of today’s amapiano tracks have. But what differentiates Thebelebe’s is his borrowing from marching brass bands hired for weddings and other celebrations in Pitori. On his second EP, he is at home with long unassuming introductions that build up to devasting breaks and experiments with vocals in his compositions- something that could use a softer touch than what he is famous for.
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