SA’s Kabza De Small appears on Times Square billboard

The feature coincides with the release of the producer’s 18-track album KOA II Part 1 featuring such artists as DJ Maphorisa, Ami Faku, Lady Du, Yung Stunna and Nobuhle, among others.

“Amapiano is for the youth,” Kabza De Small told Spotify. “Amapiano is not something that was involved with a lot of things. Like now, this is when they are starting to brand amapiano. Amapiano developed on its own, do you understand? You must know, like labels and stuff, we started this thing from scratch. There wasn’t too much sampling and stuff, those things are only starting now. It’s something that was innovated.”

Together with the inclusion of Kabza De Small on the Times Square billboard, Spotify is promoting the AmaPiano Grooves playlist to celebrate the genre alongside other African cultural movements making a mark internationally, in an effort to ensure that international listeners are informed about culturally significant music.

In addition, Kabza De Small will be the cover artist for Spotify’s global mint playlist, which features some of the biggest global dance hits and enjoys a following of almost 6 million user. This will not only be a boon for Kabza De Small’s career but will also help shift perception worldwide about where dance and electronic music thrives and is most creative.

“We’re so honoured to platform Kabza and his work in this way,” Spotify’s head of music for sub-Saharan Africa, Phiona Okumu, said. “And as part of commemorating such a deeply significant day for the African diaspora as Juneteenth, we’re celebrating not only Kabza’s musical innovation but the ingenuity and global influence of black cultural creation across the globe.”

Known as a key innovator of amapiano, Kabza De Small is also one of the faces of South Africa’s youth culture right now, having contributed bodies of work like his 2020 album I Am the King of Amapiano: Sweet & Dust as well as the definitive Scorpion Kings album with long-time collaborator DJ Maphorisa.