London’s Breaka is very much a product of the city’s multicultural and diverse underground scene. In essence, he’s a white guy named Charlie Baker who makes Black dance music. While the optics of that may be questionable to some, the landscape in the UK is notoriously open to embracing this
South African DJ and producer Shimza has been on a steady rise as one of Africa’s leaders in house music. His talent of fusing sounds and influences has been massively influential in the evolution of the Afro tech genre, and over the past few years his global presence has only
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Black Coffee made history at the 2022 Grammy Awards last night after winning the Best Dance / Electronic Music Album category, becoming the first African DJ to win the category and the first African DJ to win a Grammy in history. Black Coffee won for his seventh studio album, Subconsciously
What more is needed to prove that South African dance music is taking over the world? Gqom and amapiano are currently the country’s hottest cultural exports, and Black Coffee has just been nominated for a Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album. It’s easy to see how gqom in particular resonates beyond
Image: Awesome Tapes From Africa To say that South Africa may be experiencing a cultural Renaissance may not be completely unfounded. From the meme sensation of Jerusalema to Beyoncé dressed by Rich Mnisi, South Africa’s pop culture has never felt more prevalent in the first world. And with the success
Image courtesy Hyperdub The sound of South Africa’s dance music underground is having a moment like never before. The township born forms of Gqom and Amapiano have infiltrated the landscape of European electronic music, with more and more producers turning to the rhythmic patterns and lurking, grime adjacent bass thumps
Image by Travys Owen Angel-Ho has always had something to say, and knows damn well how to say it. She has always understood that in order to be heard as a body perceived by way of its brownness, queerness, transness; you must be loud. It’s something that the South African
Image by Zanele Muholi It makes a ridiculous amount of sense that Desire Marea should tap prolific queer South African photographer Zanele Muholi to shoot the cover for their immaculate debut album, DESIRE. No one else could have captured the multifaceted visionary quite like Muholi. Marea is an artist who
Image by Yaseen Brink / Copyright Prolific Media The music of Amapiano is infamously distributed to its followers via grassroots modes, most popularly via WhatsApp groups. This bypassing of conventional or commercial methods of distribution is somewhat synonymous with the spirit of the genre, and largely the dance music culture
“We believe electronic music is a universal language that can be used to break down socio-economic boundaries. Music and artists can help bridge the extensive gap that exists between the rich and the poor as well as between different races in developing countries.” Bridges For Music is a non-profit organisation
