DJ Maphorisa has pleaded with Nigerian DJs to reduce the tempo while playing Amapiano songs.
Since 2020, Amapiano the South African imported genre that blends Kwaito with House music has dominated Nigerian mainstream music.
In Nigeria, Amapiano which packs speaker rattling baselines is quite popular in clubs for its party-starting effect as Nigerian DJs play both the Afrobeats variant and South African Amapiano.
One of the leading figures in Amapiano, DJ Maphorisa recently took to his social media to admonish Nigerian DJs on how best to play South African Amapiano songs.
Maphorisa decried the use of high BPM (beat per minute) by Nigerian DJs when playing Amapiano songs.
According to Maphorisa, using a bpm as high as 160 when playing Amapiano robs the music of its stellar components.
“Amapiano shouldn’t be rushed. 160 bpm is too high. Please, bring it down to 130,” Maphorisa said during the Instagram live session.
DJ Maphorisa is a popular figure in the Nigerian music industry as he has collaborated with several Afrobeats stars including Wizkid and Lojay.
Since 2020, Amapiano has been a major part of Afrobeats with several Nigerian artists benefiting from deploying the South African import.
Recently, Asake & Olamide’s ‘Amapiano’ which is a tribute to the genre was nominated for the Best African Song Performance at the 66th Grammy Awards.