Twins and DJs Banele and Bandile Mbere of Major League DJz are taking strides internationally, fulfilling their mission to expose the globe to the amapiano genre.
The twin DJ duo, who were recently nominated in the Best International Act category at the 2022 BET awards and hosted 1,500 people for their Balcony Mix experience in New York, are booked and busy beyond the shores of Mzansi, selling out shows.
Speaking to TshisaLIVE, Banele spoke of the duo's pride in how far they've come in their career, being signed to international record label Atlantic Records, and being among renowned superstars such as DJ Black Coffee, Wiz Kid, Davido and Burna Boy who have sold out the O2 stadium in London and won the BET accolade.
“It's mainly about taking the South African sound to the world. We are getting international recognition.. I feel like the Major League brand is being celebrated more outside SA. We've done a lot of cover shoots, bigger shows. Our shows are much bigger outside SA,” Banele told TshisaLIVE.
He said while there are controversial conversations on social media regarding the genre, people should focus on celebrating it more to benefit from its success.
“Everybody should be embracing amapiano. It's a South African thing that is really taking over the world. Corporates should be putting big money behind it, every South African should invest in something that could put us on the map. Other countries are riding with it. SA should continue riding with it too.
“We see how other people work [in the US], the expectations, the growth, how much more there is outside SA, what we can do in SA with the expertise we're learning this side. There's a lot of growth to do a lot of things.”
In March 2022, the first Billboard US Afrobeats song chart was released, and Banele said he hopes to see the same happen for amapiano soon by making sure songs from the genre are made available on music streaming platforms such as American electronic online music store, Beatport and Traxsource and others.
“The next plan is to create music charts around amapiano. We want it to be seen as its own thing. We're also doing that by trying to get big features on it, try to create it as popular music, get big artists on it to turn it into popular music.”
The amapiano stars are gearing to release a joint EP with American electronic dance music DJ trio Major Lazer, while working on their next album featuring pop music heavyweights Drake, Jorja Smith, and Ty Dolla Sign and others.
“We've sent music [to Drake] but we don't know if it's confirmed. We are in talks, [but we have] Jorja Smith, Ty Dolla and others in the works. Any feature comes with the right energy and the right beat, and the artists have to be willing to want to do it. You have to find them in a good space so they can find themselves in the genre,”
While the Major League DJz don't have to do much convincing to affiliate themselves with big brands internationally, Banele expressed that he felt Mzansi failed to recognise the impact of the amapiano genre in the music industry.
“I don't understand why SA doesn't celebrate us as much as the outside does. As Major League, we're always putting the work in. It's quite impressive when you get that from outside.”
The DJ continued referring to getting sponsorship from Nando's (which includes a campaign yet to be revealed) but was never approached by the company in Mzansi.
“It's nice but it's like; 'Why am I not getting it from home?'” he said.
“I just wish brands would put money into the culture, not only through us, but it would be nice to see that ... there's no commercial money being out ... no-one is putting money back into the amapiano scene.”
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