explainer:
thought I’d try this and see if ILM bites. amapiano is the most exciting new genre in global music going on three or four years, but you wouldn’t really know it from 2022 ILM. speaking for myself, amapiano is the music I listen to most, but after I came back earlier this year after a six-month hiatus, it felt like a lot of the enthusiasm here had dried up. it also felt difficult to fill up the gaps once the loop had been let gone, especially since amapiano is such a vast ocean of a genre, full of long-ass tracks and longer-ass ‘EP’s and albums, just wave after fast-moving wave of good- great- and gorgeousness.
hence my idea of making this primordial alphabet soup A-Z poll for it. it consists of my most played amapiano tracks for every letter of the alphabet (going by the first letter of the track title) from August last year, which is when I decided to leave these premises, up to now.
I like that a) it’s vast: some 3 hours of music; b) it covers a lot of bases (though still misses out of some pretty crucial ones as well - that’s how vast piano is. it’s unfortunate, but you have to draw the line somewhere); and c) there’s a random element to it: some very big songs are absent because they came second to an ever bigger song with the same initial letter, and as some letters are much more common as initials for song titles (in (mostly) Zulu/Xhosa) than others, some of the entries got in just because they start with a rarer letter, without having actually been played a lot by me - but I’m not going to say which those are. I would like folx to go in with an open mind (and they’re still good anyway!). that’s also the reason I’m linking full-length versions only, and no radio edits or music videos (most of these tracks don’t have those anyway).
so yes, it’s a long-ass poll, by design, that’s why you all get two whole months to dip your toes into this and hopefully get engulfed.
feel free to share your thoughts about any aspect of amapiano and this endeavor, and to make your case for any track you fancy (and please, link to your liking!)
Poll Results
Option | Votes |
“Paris” by Q-Mark | 3 |
“Asijabule” by Vigro Deep | 2 |
“Isphithiphithi” by Pabi Cooper | 2 |
“Crush Yam” by T-Man SA | 2 |
“Vula Mlomo” by Musa Keys | 2 |
“Eningi” by Kabza De Small | 1 |
“Mmapula” by Busta 929 | 1 |
“Jozi Night” by GemValleyMusiQ | 1 |
“Risasekile” by Aymos | 0 |
“Qo Qo Qo” by Obeey Amor | 0 |
“Sika Bopha” by Ntokzin | 0 |
“Trigger” by DJ Karri | 0 |
“Uzozisola” by Mas Musiq | 0 |
“Wamuhle” by Njelic | 0 |
“Xigubhu” by Welle SA | 0 |
“Yini Sdakwa” by ThackzinDJ | 0 |
“3310” by Focalistic | 0 |
“Obrigado” by Da Muziqal Chef | 0 |
“Ngoxolo” by Theology HD | 0 |
“Bathini” by Kabza De Small | 0 |
“Dangerous” by MDU aka TRP | 0 |
“Feeling” by Mapara A Jazz | 0 |
“Gijima (Vocal Mix)” by DJ Black Low | 0 |
“Hamba Nobani” by Boohle | 0 |
“Korobela” by DJ Sumbody | 0 |
“Lwangempela” by Tee Jay | 0 |
“Madiba” by HennyBeLit | 0 |
“Madlamini” by Kelvin Momo | 0 |
“Ziwa Ngale” by Kabza De Small | 0 |
― big movers, hot steppers + long shaker intros (breastcrawl), Monday, 5 September 2022 14:48 (one year ago) link