DJ Black Coffee provides clarity on 'beef' with Zakes Bantwini and why he won't play 'Osama'

DJ Black Coffee has set the record straight on what ended his once iconic collaboration with musician Zakes Bantwini and explained why he won't play Zakes' latest hit Osama, despite the song being classified as a banger by most house music lovers in SA.

Osama caused a stir on the internet after Zakes' live performance at Kunye last week went viral. The song trended for several days on Twitter and people applauded the musician for what some dubbed the “anthem of the year”.

Black Coffee joined the people raving over the hit, however, his true feelings about the song surfaced later when he revealed that though it was a jam, he was not going to play it or include it in his set as house lovers in SA had called for him to do.

The DJ said the Zakes and Kasango version was “nice” but he still preferred the original version of it.

This evoked a lot of questions and Podcast and Chill's Sol Phenduka took to the DJ's TL to ask for answers.

Replying to Sol, Black Coffee maintained that Osama was fire, but it just wasn't his kind of vibe.

“Yeah my musical reputation is based on what I like. It's always been like that and also not all songs I like belong on my sets but last I said in my initial tweet Osama is a fire tune.”

Seeing that the internationally renowned DJ was keen on engaging him, Sol then proceeded to ask the question everyone had on their minds: Do Black Coffee and Zakes have a beef?

Was Black Coffee not “into” Osama because there were unknown tensions between the pair?

“No there's no conflict, we had our differences and both agreed not to have a working relationship any more,” clarified the DJ.

Coffee said it was all love from his side. He gave an explanation that seemed to imply that his allegiance with the original version of the song was tied to a deeper purpose of trying to show love to “young producers” who are relatively unknown and need the exposure.

“People got quite emotional the last time so this time I'll let them judge. Look, it's all love over here but the sad thing is we have a community of young producers that are also dependent on this and are trying their best to stay afloat with a genre that isn't mainstream.

“We all doing our best to support each other and they don't have a voice to cry out when such happens and I unfortunately can't keep quiet. Someone has to say something. This particular song isn't even out yet. It's just been played by DJ's exclusively and now it's here,” tweeted Coffee.

Black Coffee concluded his “Twitterview” with a myth-buster tweet.

“Also contrary to popular belief I love Kunye, love that the scene is growing and more of this music and artists can get more exposure. Just want to see everyone win, let's collaborate with one another if we can without taking from each other that's definitely how we gonna win.”