DJ Maphorisa fuming at Samthing Soweto over new track as amapiano artists fight over song rights

Samthing Soweto performs at Moses Mabhida Stadium. Picture: Bongani Mbatha/Independent Newspapers

Samthing Soweto performs at Moses Mabhida Stadium. Picture: Bongani Mbatha/Independent Newspapers

Published Sep 3, 2024

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Amapiano fans are up in arms after the release of “Amalanga Awafani”, a highly anticipated song between Mas Musiq, DJ Maphorisa and Samthing Soweto, revealed a glaring exclusion – the absence of credits for Samthing Soweto’s vocals on the track.

Despite Samthing Soweto’s unmistakable voice being featured prominently throughout the song, his contribution has gone unrecognised on the song.

The song, which dropped on Tuesday, has sparked widespread outrage on social media, with X users expressing their discontent and demanding justice, and music credits, for Samthing Soweto, whose given name is Samkelo Lelethu Mdolomba.

In an attempt to address the situation, DJ Maphorisa took to Instagram Live to clear the air. An angry Maphorisa, whose real name is Themba Sonnyboy Sekowe, explained that a misunderstanding between himself and Samthing Soweto led to the song’s release without proper credits for the vocalist.

In the video, a fuming Maphorisa said they decided to take out Samthing Soweto from the credits as he was fighting them over the music rights for the song, so they decided to just remove him and deal with it later.

“I’ve saved this culture of South African music, South African music is driven by this m**** f*****, I’ve saved a lot of things, I have crawled for you guys,” he said on Instagram.

“Don’t make me a bad person... Everyone wants to see me down because I’m the guy, I have made this sh** happen, amapiano is in Africa... Do you see what I have done for this country.

“You help people and they betray you, but I am still here, still standing and still strong,” said Maphorisa.

DJ Maphorisa has been accused by other artists, including amapiano vocalist, Sir Trill, of not being adequately paid despite being featured prominently in some of Maphorisa’s chart-topping songs.

Samthing Soweto has yet to publicly speak on the matter, but he did publish a tweet with a broken heart on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, DJ Maphorisa, has urged fans not to blame Mas Musiq for the fight over song credits, but rather to hold him responsible.

IOL Entertainment