Black Coffee sound? For me, it combines Afro-rhythms with vocal house, with a hint of pop lightness. Muye (Black Coffee Remix), a soaring piano cinematic feast, stands out for me as one of the finest tunes on Spotify. There are several great vocal tracks on Raplg Gums’ GOGO label, such as Stuck In Your Love feat. Azola and Turn Me On.
A brief look through his discography reveals names such as Charles Webster, Henrik Schwarz, Boddhi Satva, Manoo, and many more. It’s addictive to listen to, light and rhythmic; if you enjoy singing, this is a winning playlist for you.
Black Coffee, a South African house music DJ and producer, established his career gradually over nearly two decades, riding the growing global interest in his home country’s emerging dance music scene to become perhaps Africa’s largest DJ.
This improbable celebrity, Nkosinathi Maphumulo, was born on March 11, 1976, in Durban, and grew up surrounded by music, especially his uncle’s enormous reggae library.
After his parents divorced, he relocated with his mother to Mthatha, a disadvantaged township in the Eastern Cape, when he was twelve years old. Two years later, on the day Nelson Mandela was released from Robben Island, Maphumulo lost use of his left arm when he was one of scores of people hit by a cab driver in a politically motivated attack.
He returned to Durban to study music theory at Natal Tech, majoring in jazz, and immersed himself even more deeply in the music. He left out before finishing his study, and he and two pals, Thandukwazi “Demor” Sikhosana and Mnqobi “Shota” Mdabe, became backing singers for renowned folk-blues guitarist Madala Kunene before forming the soul-pop trio Shana.
He studied Jazz Studies at Technikon Natal, now Durban University of Technology, and also worked as a backing singer for Madala Kuene alongside schoolmates Mnqobi Mdabe (Shota) and Thandukwazi Sikhosana (Demor), who later formed the Afro-pop trio SHANA (Simply Hot and Naturally African), which was signed to Melt 2000. His motivation for learning music was that he felt that as a producer, he needed to broaden his musical knowledge, improve his listening abilities, and expand his understanding of music theory.
From there, Black Coffee was chosen as one of two South African participants in the Red Bull Music Academy in 2003, which launched him into the South African dance music scene. His first big break came when his song “Happiness” appeared on the DJs at Work album.
In 2010, Black Coffee was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for DJing nonstop for 60 hours at Maponya Mall.
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