Ok, I may be American but I've been listening to Kwaito since '99. At that time, I was listening to African Hip-Hop and other world music but I fell in love with the sound because it remided me of the days of Funky House music during my childhood. Not only that, it was a combination of Funky House and (commercial)
South African Hip Hop and Reggae. Being the only kid in my cla**room to listen to
the genre, I was an outcast but so what? I had a taste way different from anyone else. My Favorite artists were TKZee, Trompies, Mouzeland, O'demeester, Ghetto Luv, Abashante, Lekgoa (go'head, laugh...), M'du and a few others (I would've included Arthur but there was something too mainstream about him).
Over the years I was into the music but then became uninterested due to the
lack of websites supporting the scene but 8 years later, I'm starting to listen again but something is f***ed up................
Why the hell is there a divide in the genre? You have DJs like Brothers of Peace, DJ Sbu, and DJ Cleo (even though his House stuff is cool) doing House and Kwaito MCs like Kabelo, Zola, Tokollo (or Magesh), and Hip Hop Pantsula trying to become mainstream Hip Hop artists (like they're really doing Hip Hop
).
There's a few things I gotta say about this change, I HATE IT! Please return to the origional sound. This reminds me of when Garage divided into Grime and Dubstep. This divide sucks and to the "former" Kwaito rappers, no matter what
you try to be, "YOU'LL ALWAYS BE A FRIKIN' KWAITO ARTIST!! (this sorta excludes TKZee, since they started off as a Hip-Hop group)
That was my $20 rant...........
