Opinion: 7 Reasons Why Every SA Rapper Should Jump On Amapiano

The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SlikourOnLife and its staff. 

Andile Mathobela is a media analyst and DJ by profession and the founder of TheJournalistDJ.com, a niche dance culture, lifestyle and entertainment publication. 

The South African music industry hasn’t been this exciting with youth creativity since the post-apartheid era when Kwaito music blew up in the early 1990s. 

I think every Hip-Hop artist from Mzansi should jump on the Amapiano bandwagon if they want a lucrative career and longevity.

The already existing case studies suggest that my suggestion is spot-on. Think about the likes of Focalistic, Cassper Nyovest, Costa Titch (R.I.P), Riky Rick (R.I.P) as well as Reason. All these guys’ star power grew exponentially after laying some bars on the log drum.

Cassper Nyovest famously said, “Hip-Hop saved my life and ‘Piano is gonna feed my kids,” on a song he did with Majorsteez titled ‘Asbonge’. What a prophetic line.

During the month of July 2023 alone, major international rappers like Swae Lee as well as NLE Choppa have both publicly shown an eager fascination on the genre.

Here are my seven reasons why rappers should jump on Amapiano:

1. The target audience is susceptible

Even though Amapiano was born as a result of deep house DJs slowing down the tempo to accommodate the elderly ballers at chesa nyamas on Sundays, Amapiano has since grown to be a youth movement. Young people love Amapiano and they are willing to support anyone who is willing to give them fire music. This is the exact reason why the category generates more celebrities than any other music genre in South Africa.

2. The ground-work has already been done

Even though some may say the Amapiano market is saturated, there are still many creative as well as business opportunities to be explored. Amapiano is growing internationally by the day and for the first time in a long time, the market around the world is zoning in to see what Mzansi is saying so now is the best time to drop that Amapiano mixtape ‘cause the world is listening.

3. Amapiano lifestyle is already Hip-Hop 

Think about it, the best Amapiano artists are already driving expensive cars, they have the latest gadgets, they travel with entourages, they are fashion trend setters, they live in mansions, they get the hottest groupies and they are making a bucket load of money. 

4. There are no gatekeepers in Amapiano

Nobody is outchea trying to claim Amapiano, it belongs to all South Africans. Nobody is gonna block you anywhere, all you need is a fire beat, catchy flow and TikTok. Making it in the music industry has never been this easy. 

5. Simple music

You don’t have to think too hard about metaphors that make sense or rhyming too hard, you can still have fun on the beat while flexing your skill without worrying about the Hip-Hop community calling out your rhyming skills. 

6. Brands are endorsing Amapiano artists

Products are slowly but surely starting to invest a lot of their marketing budget by collaborating with Amapiano stars, as they realise that the fastest way of amplifying their key campaign objectives is by partnering with the log drum community because numbers don’t lie. 

7. It’s a proudly South African genre

I think every country needs patriotic artists who will help put their nation on the international map. Hip-Hop is arguably the most influential musical community today. Now imagine fusing that with Amapiano, the next star who successfully achieves the combo could be the next Michael Jackson. South Africa needs it, do it for your land, start rapping on Amapiano beats today.