Recently, a video of former NBA star, Shaquille O’ Neal dancing surfaced online. He was showing off his dance moves while vibing the remix of the song “Ameno Amapiano” by Nigerian artiste Goya Menor and his Ghanaian counterpart Nektunez.
While Manchester United and France midfielder, Paul Pogba also posted a video of him vibing to the remix of Ameno Amapiano.
Rooted in the electronic dance music of the kwaito, which is another popular South African genre that emerged in the ‘90s, Amapiano features elements of RnB, Jazz, and slight pop-fusions. The exact Zulu meaning of Amapiano is “pianos.”
“Many producers have looked down on the amapiano sound and classified it as low quality,” Mark Khosa, a South African musical producer, admits in a documentary. “There is this other guy who started this thing. When the DJ was playing music, he took the keyboard as if it was in church and started playing over the music. He played the piano while they recorded in the studio to get that specific genre of music. In my opinion, amapiano consists of baselines and keyboard sounds you would hear on a church keyboard.
“Someone came up with the concept of infusing deep house inside piano so the deep house can push the piano sound. Kabza, a veteran in the industry, tried to play the same music with a different variation called Numba at clubs back in the day. “Most people knew him as a DJ that plays a deep house sound called Numba till it was called amapiano. They are the ones who started it. MFR souls became the ones popular for this sound,” he concluded.
Nigerian music is undergoing a transformation that is of African origin. It is located in a deep bass beat that is played in a series of successions. Something we have all come to know as amapiano. Luckily, this genre of music that several music producers are infusing in songs like Sarz and Lojay’s “Monalisa” or Falz ‘s “Squander” was a low-tier music production that grew deep in the streets of South Africa.
In Nigeria, it is almost impossible even to track the first song that worked with amapiano because there are several songs far and in between that have used different variations of this beat to carve something unique. The list is endless between Joeboy’s “Consent,” to Wurld’s “Mad,” “Woman” by Rema, Zinolessky’s “Kilofeshe,” “Go Low” by L.A.X, Rexxie’s “KPK,” “Look at Me” by Niniola, DJ Kaywise’s “Highway.” Over the years, Nigerian music has evolved from shaku-shaku which was made famous by Olamide to zanku made popular by Zlatan Ibile to gbe body and now amapiano.
READ: Tourism: Amapiano, The Genre That’s Taking Over South Africa’s Music Industry
And Nigerian artistes have also gone on to make hits using amapiano featuring South African musicians like Sponono by Kabza De Small, Madumane, Burna Boy, WizKid, Cassper Nyovest, Soweto Baby by DJ Maphorisa, DJ Buckz, WizKid, and Squander by Falz, Kamo Mphela, Mpura, Niniola and Sayfar. Nigerian act Naira Marley, also collaborated with popular South African singer, Busiswa, for the song ‘Coming’ just to name a few. This in a way debunks Ghanaian rapper Shatta Wale’s dig at the Nigerian music industry, that Nigerian artistes do not love and support other artistes from other countries, especially Ghana.
According to a publication by The Punch, Nigerian artistes that have been experimenting with amapiano is paying off as their songs are not only topping charts, they also enjoy high numbers in terms of streaming and views on popular online music platforms. More so, these songs are a permanent fixture on the playlists of most disc jockeys.
Currently, South Africans can lay claim to this genre as original producers; as they have several amapiano mixes on Youtube amounting to millions of streams.
By Chigozie Chukwuemeka
