For every single genre of music out there in the world, it is guaranteed that there are dozens of sub-variants that capture some part of the original but either have parts of other genres or have evolved in a slightly different direction.
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In many cases, it is local traditions and adaptations that create the conditions for a new music variety, much like the grime movement in London that has produced major artists like Stormzy. What we don’t often hear about are those variants that are so local to their region that they don’t ever escape it but still have massive impacts on the local scene.
The Basics Behind Kwaito
Kwaito is just such a local version, based almost entirely in its native South Africa. The nation has a long reputation for blending cultures, languages and concepts and putting them out in entirely unique ways. This can be seen in everything from their half-African and half-Dutch food inspirations to all the games that show up in their online casinos. In fact, online slots in South Africa like the ones over at Yebo Casino are entirely different from the titles players would expect to see from their equivalents in the U.K. or U.S. for instance. There is nothing in the country quite like anything else.
Kwaito takes this philosophy and applies it to house music, characterised by generally slower tempos and heavy use of a range of looped samples often with vocals resembling hip-hop run on top. It has a storied history, evolving from the ghetto life in the region of Soweto in the suburbs of Johannesburg, emerging in the late 80s post-Apartheid world. It is very much a counter-culture creation.
Who Are The Biggest Names In Kwaito?
As with all music, who sits at the top is always hotly debated, although statistics put artist Zola at the top at least in terms of streaming plays. The musician, who also happens to have starred in an Oscar-winning film, is something of a cultural force in South Africa, said to be second only to Nelson Mandela in influence by some prominent producers.
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Going a little back in time, the earliest form of kwaito is believed to have come from DJs Oscar “Oskido” Mdlongwa and Christos Katsaitis, who experimented with slowing down house music at a club in Johannesburg and ended up layering vocals and loops of more traditional South African music. While they were not the first to release a specific kwaito track, this is still seen as the very beginning of the style.
Until now, the major labels that hold the global distribution rights have not acted on opening kwaito up to the wider world, so the subgenre remains mostly unknown outside of South Africa. While this is likely due to a perceived language barrier, more and more foreign-language artists have made breakthroughs into English-speaking markets in recent years, so there’s every chance we may be seeing Zola and company sooner rather than later.
