Inside Prince Kaybee and Maphorisa's twar over 'who pioneered amapiano'

The pair hardly see eye-to-eye on anything!

29 April 2021 - 12:00 By chrizelda kekana
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DJ Maphorisa and Prince Kaybee got into another twar!
DJ Maphorisa and Prince Kaybee got into another twar!
Image: DJ Maphorisa/ Instagram x Prince Kaybee/ Instagram

Probs feeling like it's been too long since they exchanged words, DJ Maphorisa and Prince Kaybee got into a “sub-tweets” twar over the origins of amapiano this week.

It hardly takes much to ignite a fire on the TL between Phori and his fave Twitter-war mate Kaybee. And on Wednesday Mzansi was treated to a brief shady exchange of words between the two as they subtweeted each other over who should take credit for pioneering the amapiano genre that has taken the world by storm.

As amapiano continues to gain global popularity, there has been a constant debate on the TL as to who ought to take credit for believing in the sound when it started a few years ago. 

Prince Kaybee took to Twitter to ask the original pioneers of the genre to document everything about the Amapiano culture.

He took the moment to also throw shade at “those who left their own genres to join the amapiano wagon” — which Twitter read as DJ Maphorisa — telling them to take the back seat.

“The Amapiano cats should compile a Netflix special outlining the culture and its roots. And please the artists that left their genres to jump on the amapiano wagon must not be in this, let the kids tell their story,” he tweeted.

Not about to allow any disrespect on his name, Maphorisa proved his Yanos “pioneer” cred.

2017 dropped my first amapiano song, and it was not with Kabza. I've been at it. I invested my life with amapiano for almost 5 years don't come with bullsh*t,” Phori hit back.

The DJ then added a note for all the “old” artists seemingly touched by amapiano's growing success.

He added that artists that didn't have the foresight to see how the genre would blow up should keep their regrets to themselves.

“Amapiano name came as a diss. Don't be mad now or be frustrated because you can't chart any more. You didn’t see it coming. We paid attention to the streets and the culture, now it's paying us, Thanks, SA.”

“Don't be arrogant, be humble and listen to the kids. You're getting old, don't forget!”


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