DBN Gogo On Becoming One Of The First Women In Amapiano, Her Upcoming EP ‘Click Bait’ + More On Africa Now Radio

Amapiano DJ and producer, DBN Gogo joins Nandi Madida via FaceTime on Apple Music 1 to talk about her upcoming EP, ‘Click Bait’ and her lead single, ‘STINGRAY’ featuring Durban’s Finest and Effected. She also discusses becoming one of Amapiano’s most prominent women, and how the genre’s global growth inspires South Africa’s young people. 

DBN Gogo on how she became one of the first women in Amapiano:

"It seems like a lifetime ago because piano is moving so fast, it’s almost running away from us! I really came into it at a time when I was still playing old school house, a little bit more dance music and I think the more I started to play, people wanted later slots. Everyone is sort of playing the same music at the time, and this new sound that I keep hearing - I was introduced to amapiano in Pretoria, so I was hearing a lot of bacardi, broken beat, that vibe - and I was like, let me see what this is all about and I started mixing old school, piano and gqom. In a one hour set you would hear all three genres, I don’t even know how I was doing that, and it just kind of became a thing because the women in piano were the vocalists, so yeah I think I was just at the right place at the right time, really fortunate and willing to learn because it hadn’t been adapted by a lot of people." 

"Now a lot of people know a lot of the sound and a lot of the music through me because I really came into it and it just became one with me, and I started making music. It just felt authentic for me to make that, especially with someone like a DJ Dinho who hails from Pretoria, who is part of the first people making the sound. It was a no brainer for me."

“You know there was a time when a lot of people were patronising others for jumping onto amapiano and, you know, riding the wave and it’s like… it’s our music, why would you not get into this thing that we’re all doing? I see that our dance and our afro tech is really becoming a thing, even globally, so I was like let me dabble and see how I can interpret it in my own way and see what we make of it.

That’s why we named the EP Click Bait, because you’re going to tap in it thinking that you’re going to be listening to your regular regular DBN Gogo - making ‘piano, making you dance. Yes we’ll have a dance, but we’re giving you a new flavour. We’re showing you the versatility, we’re showing you that South African dance music is here, we’re all here and we’re all working together, we’re collaborating and we’re pushing this music. Doesn’t matter what variation of it it is, we are pushing our sound.”

DBN Gogo on why South African music deserves the spotlight:

“It’s the universe telling us that we matter, what we make matters. There’s an audience for us, we’re not just a small country at the bottom of Africa, we have dreams that are valid. We have a sound, and it’s not the first time South African sound has gone international, it just shows us that we can create our own things and we are worthy of that as we are worth being looked into.

I don’t think there is any other genre that worked as hard, even during lockdown. Blood, sweat and tears - there are kids that have died for this sound, you know? It’s not child’s play, people are being employed, treating their families with this sound… so it really is incredible that we’re getting our time to shine and we can do anything we set our minds to. I think the youths of South Africa have needed something to be inspired by for a very long time.”

Tune in and listen to the full episode today on Apple Music 1 at apple.co/_AfricaNow.