WEEKENDMIX 3.9.12: SOUTH AFRICA SHOWDOWN

As many of you know, March is a very big month for lovers of Dance music and nitelife culture. The Winter Music Conference is just days away, soon Miami will be even hotter as the clubs, lounges, and yes, hotel lobbies turn up the volume and get down to the best music on earth, dance music! Thus we are dedicating every DJ of The Week and WeekendMix extra special this month focusing on some of the best, note, I didn’t say most famous, DJs and mixes we feel you should be hearing, grooving, and sweating to! So, what do we have in store for you this weekend? Get ready, it’s going to get hot in here!

Over the last few years, Dance music has exploded, but the grandaddy of all this commercial dance music you’re hearing on the radio these days, is House music! No where has House music exploded more than in the country from where humanity itself sprung forth, the motherland that is Africa! To be more specific, it is the country located at the southern tip of this great continent that is so in love with House music, a country not only eagerly consuming all things House, but equally, if not more so, contributing to the very fabric of the scene with artists such as the immaculate and always cool Black Coffee.

As you may know, Black Coffee catapulted onto the world stage just a couple of years ago with his album Home Brewed. The singles ‘Superman’, ‘Gardens of Eden’, ‘JuJu’ and ‘Crazy,’ are still in rotation, still getting remixed, and he is still touring off of the impact of that record. And to think, he was just the one to open the door to what South Africa has in store.

The energy coming out of South Africa right now is astounding. The DJs spin with a passion and feel for the music that shuts up those who think real DJs don’t exist anymore, at least, if they are too young to know vinyl. The productions are equally as impressive and profound. Keep you ears open for producers such as Bashanyana and Lento and DJs Oskido, DJ Fresh, DJ Cleo, and DJ Kent. There are a lot more. Many, many more, and I recommend, if you haven’t already, that you start digging through some digital crates and turning your ear to South Africa. In the meantime, let us put you on to three mixes that are simply going to rattle your bones! They are not all from South African DJs, DJ Kwété is from West Africa or feature exclusively South African House, but after you listen to these mixes you’ll be a South African House head.

Dj Motumo D-man Johannesburg, South Africa DJ Kwété Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire mO_(((stereo))) Phala, Pretoria, South Africa