South African hip hop has slowly worked its way to being a genre of note in the South African music industry. The number of hip hop artists winning SAMAs and dominating radio playlists is the highest it has ever been. Recent chart-toppers such as K.O.’s “Caracara”, AKA’s “All Eyes On Me” and Cassper Nyovest’s “Doc Shebeleza” were all made by producers under the age of 25. Peep our list of five young producers that are behind your favourite hip hop tunes.
1 Anatii (22)
Anatii is no stranger to the hip hop scene. He’s been producing since he was 14 and gave us his first hit at 16 (L-Tido’s “When it Rains”). He stayed relatively quiet after that until two years ago. He produced most of DJ Dimplez’s Zeal album and then became the go-to guy for club hits. From working with DJ Khaled on “Bananas”, Cassper Nyovest on “Bad One”, Chad Da Don on “Hola”, AKA on “The Saga”, L-tido on “We Ain’t Leavin’”, and the list goes on, it’s clear Anatii was bound to change the game sooner or later.
Follow Anatii on Twitter and visit his website.
2 Tweezy (22)
Tumelo “Tweezy” Mathebula took the industry by the scruff of its neck with an arsenal of club bangers like AKA’s “Run Jozi”, “Sim Dope” and “All Eyes On Me”. He contributed heavily to the sound of the rapper’s Levels album and instantly became a hip hop commodity. Tweezy has already worked with most of the big names in rap such as L-Tido, Reason, Chad Da Don, as well as some on the come up.
Follow Tweezy on Twitter and Facebook.
3 Lunatik (21)
Lunatik teamed up with K.O. to introduce skhanda rap, a new hip hop sub-genre that fuses kwaito and hip hop. Lunatik’s work speaks for itself. He shut the whole country down with K.O.’s massive hit, “Caracara”. He has also produced certified hits for the whole Cashtime roster such as Kid X’s “Pass n Special” and “Cooler Bag”, Ma-E’s “uGogo” and Maggz’s “Cho Dlozi”. He still continues to deliver heat for Moneoa, Yanga, JR, Priddy Ugly just to name-drop. Take a bow, son!
Follow Lunatik on Twitter and Facebook.
4 JustFeness (formally known as Sean Craig Beats) (17)
JustFenese gave us Cassper Nyovest’s breakout track, “Doc Shebeleza”. This song is the rocket that launched both their careers. Cassper’s Tsholofelo album went platinum and the “Doc Shebeleza” track went even further to sell over 1.5 million copies on the MTN music platform alone. He has been dubbed the Lex Luger of South African hip hop, pretty impressive considering that he is still in high school. We can’t wait to hear more from this young cat.
Follow JustFenesse on Twitter.
5 Bizz Boy (22)
The man behind relaunching DA L.E.S’s career, Bizz Boy, supplied us with a proper street anthem, like “Heaven”, that made the rap game take note. He continued his winning streak with “Fire” by Da L.E.S which turned out to be another hit that would set the tone for the rapper’s Mandela Money album.
All images provided by artists.
- An earlier version of this article wrongly stated that Lunatik produced the song “Sorry Makhe” by DJ Vigilante (ft. L-Tido, Kid X, Maggz and Yanga), the song was produced by AirDee. The correction has been made.
