DJ Maphorisa is not talking about abandoning Amapiano.
Amapiano’s international future is often discussed as a question of how far the genre can travel. Maphorisa is raising a more technical question: what happens when the music arrives in a club ecosystem operating at a different speed? His answer suggests that South African dance music’s advantage may increasingly lie not in one dominant genre, but in producers and DJs capable of moving between several related sounds without treating those movements as betrayal.
He is talking about what happens when South African dance music refuses to stay inside one tempo.
The future may not be South African dance music choosing its next genre. It may be its best DJs learning to speak several of them fluently.
In a recent conversation with Tim Sweeney on Apple Music’s Beats in Space, Maphorisa described one of the practical challenges he has encountered when taking Amapiano into certain international club environments:
Speed.
He placed Amapiano at roughly 113 BPM and contrasted that with Ibiza rooms that, in his experience, often operate from around 120 BPM upwards.
That difference sounds small on paper.
Seven beats per minute.
Inside a club, it can be enormous.
Tempo affects the way bodies move.
How one DJ hands a room to another.
How quickly percussion feels like it is travelling.
How much energy appears to disappear when a set suddenly drops several BPM.
And whether a record sounds natural beside whatever came immediately before it.
For Maphorisa, that makes straight Amapiano difficult to insert into certain faster European club programmes without fundamentally altering the feeling of the music.
His answer is not:
Make Amapiano something else.
It is:
Have more than one gear.
113 BPM Is a Useful Shorthand, Not a Rule
One qualification is important.
Amapiano does not literally exist at one tempo.
Maphorisa’s 113 BPM figure is better understood as a description of the slower pocket associated with much of the music than as a technical boundary around the genre.
Current commercial metadata makes that clear.
Recent tracks involving Maphorisa and Kabza De Small classified as Amapiano on Beatport sit at 112, 113 and 114 BPM, while other Kabza releases have reached 119 BPM.
So the interesting point is not the exact number.
It is the gap.
Much of the House and Afro Tech programming Maphorisa encounters internationally moves faster than the relaxed, rolling bounce around which a large amount of Amapiano has developed.
Simply forcing the latter upwards can alter the thing people liked about it in the first place.
Maphorisa told Sweeney that the problem is not only the log drum.
It is the overall bounce.
That is the more useful way to understand his concern.
Tempo is not just maths.
Tempo is behaviour.
Ibiza Has Not Literally Rejected Amapiano
There is another distinction worth making.
Maphorisa said Amapiano had struggled to “penetrate” Ibiza because of that tempo difference.
Read literally, that would now be too broad.
Amapiano already has a visible presence on the island.
Major League DJz have had recurring 2026 programming in Ibiza that explicitly combines Amapiano, Afro House and Afro Tech, including their Echoes of Tomorrow programme connected to Chinois and Hyde Ibiza. Separate summer programming at Bora Bora has also explicitly included Amapiano.
So the issue is not:
Can Amapiano physically exist in Ibiza?
It can.
The more interesting question is whether a recognisably slower Amapiano set can move seamlessly into a main-room environment whose preceding and following DJs may be operating considerably faster.
That is a programming problem.
And programming problems can produce musical innovation.
Maphorisa Has Already Been Testing the Answer
Maphorisa’s own Ibiza experience helps explain why he is thinking this way.
He told Sweeney that when he and Kabza De Small recently played around Black Coffee’s night at Hï Ibiza, they represented Afro Tech rather than simply delivering an Amapiano set.
The reasoning was practical.
A faster musical language made sense for the room.
Maphorisa has moved through these kinds of transitions throughout his career.
House.
Afropop.
Gqom.
Afrobeats.
Amapiano.
Now he says his ear is moving again towards Afro Tech.
“I like the uncomfortable feeling,” he told Sweeney while explaining why he repeatedly moves into new sounds.
That sentence matters more than any argument about genre loyalty.
Maphorisa does not appear to understand genres as permanent addresses.
They are places to learn something.
Then carry that knowledge somewhere else.
South African DJs Are Becoming Multilingual
Later in the conversation, Maphorisa points towards what may be the bigger movement.
Kabza De Small can play inside deep-house environments.
Dlala Thukzin can draw from gqom, Afro House and 3-Step.
Maphorisa can move from Amapiano into Afro Tech.
None of those transitions requires the artist to issue a statement announcing that the previous genre has been abandoned.
The catalogue does not disappear.
The knowledge accumulates.
“That’s the movement now,” Maphorisa says.
That phrase offers a better description than the usual language of genre replacement.
South African dance music is not necessarily moving from Amapiano to whatever comes next.
Its leading producers are becoming more multilingual inside the club.
A DJ can understand the spaciousness of deep house.
The pressure of gqom.
The swing of Amapiano.
The propulsion of Afro Tech.
The three-beat rhythmic logic associated with 3-Step.
And select whichever vocabulary makes sense for the room.
One Current Record Almost Explains the Whole Argument
The crossover is not theoretical.
On 28 August, Dlala Thukzin and Funky Qla released “Maye” with Kabza De Small, DJ Maphorisa and Thatohatsi.
Beatport classifies the track as Afro House.
Its listed tempo is 120 BPM.
Look at the names involved.
Dlala Thukzin.
Funky Qla.
Kabza De Small.
DJ Maphorisa.
Artists whose individual catalogues carry different relationships with gqom, Amapiano, Afro House and adjacent South African dance forms are occupying the same record at precisely the faster tempo Maphorisa was discussing.
That does not mean “Maye” is some official manifesto for the future of South African music.
It does not need to be.
Sometimes the most convincing evidence of a genre boundary weakening is that the musicians stopped treating the boundary as particularly dramatic.
Dlala Thukzin Is One of the Important Bridges
Maphorisa gives Dlala Thukzin particular significance in this conversation.
When Sweeney asks about emerging sounds, Maphorisa points towards a developing collision between Afro Tech and gqom and describes it as one of the areas catching his attention.
Thukzin makes sense as a reference point.
His recent catalogue is unusually difficult to reduce to a single column.
Current Beatport classifications around his work include Afro House, 3-Step and gqom-related club music, sometimes across releases arriving on the same day.
That fluidity matters.
Gqom demonstrated how extraordinarily powerful a South African regional club language could become.
Amapiano demonstrated the same thing on an even larger global scale.
3-Step has introduced another rhythmic framework.
Afro Tech provides access to a faster global house continuum.
A producer familiar with all four does not necessarily need to decide which one represents the future.
The future may be the ability to translate between them.
Genre Still Matters
This does not mean the labels should disappear.
Calling everything “African electronic music” or simply “Afro” can create its own kind of flattening.
Gqom has a history.
Amapiano has a history.
Deep house has specific communities and musical lineages in South Africa.
3-Step did not emerge from nowhere.
Afro House and Afro Tech have developed their own aesthetics, scenes and international networks.
Those distinctions matter because genre names document innovation.
They tell us that people in particular places made particular decisions differently enough for listeners to notice.
So “genre is dead” would be the wrong lesson.
Genre remains useful.
What is changing is the expectation that the artist must remain inside it.
Amapiano’s Success Created This Freedom
There is also a reason this conversation can happen now.
Amapiano won.
Not in the sense that every other South African dance genre disappeared.
In the sense that the music became culturally powerful enough that its leading artists no longer have to prove its legitimacy every time they enter another room.
A few years ago, crossing into another genre might have been read as leaving Amapiano behind.
Now somebody like Maphorisa can move towards Afro Tech while simultaneously preparing to headline FNB Stadium with Kabza De Small as Scorpion Kings.
Their stadium show is scheduled for 19 September 2026.
That is not an artist fleeing the sound that made him successful.
That is what confidence looks like after the sound became successful enough to survive experimentation.
The Global Question Is Becoming More Technical
For years, discussions around globalising South African music often focused on visibility.
Can the artist reach Europe?
Can they get booked in the United States?
Can the record enter an international playlist?
Can the collaboration happen?
Those questions remain relevant.
But as Amapiano establishes genuine international audiences, another layer becomes more important:
How does the music function once it arrives?
What happens between DJs?
What happens in a festival slot?
What happens when a 113 BPM record follows something at 124?
What happens when the room expects a different kind of movement?
Does the South African artist adapt the song?
Change genres?
Build a hybrid?
Create a separate set for that environment?
Or teach the room to slow down?
There is no single correct answer.
Maphorisa’s approach appears to be flexibility.
South Africa Does Not Need One Export Sound
That possibility extends beyond Maphorisa.
One of the easiest mistakes international markets can make is discovering one successful African genre and treating it as representative of an entire national dance culture.
Amapiano becomes South African electronic music.
Before that, perhaps gqom briefly carries the same burden.
But South Africa has never sounded like one thing.
House alone has decades of local history.
Deep house.
Afro House.
Kwaito.
Gqom.
Amapiano.
Afro Tech.
3-Step.
And all the less easily named spaces where those traditions collide.
The opportunity created by Amapiano’s global success may therefore be larger than exporting Amapiano forever.
It may have opened international doors through which several South African dance languages can now move.
Viranova has already seen that wider shift elsewhere.
Mörda’s Asante series continues developing an Afro-House world with its own identity, while Outside Already has increasingly positioned Amapiano as part of a wider cultural ecosystem rather than an isolated club sound.
The interesting future may be the conversation between all of them.
More Than One Gear
Maphorisa’s 113 BPM observation is ultimately interesting because it sounds so unromantic.
There is no grand declaration.
No claim that Amapiano is finished.
No ceremonial announcement of a new genre replacing the old one.
It is a DJ noticing what happens when two records do not sit comfortably beside one another.
And then thinking about what else he can play.
That is how dance music often evolves.
Not through manifestos.
Through rooms.
Through transitions.
Through somebody realising that a rhythm works differently when the crowd changes.
Maphorisa is not asking South African dance music to surrender its identity in order to travel.
If anything, he is proposing the opposite.
Do not compress the entire country’s club imagination into one internationally recognisable sound.
Take more of it with you.
Amapiano here.
Afro Tech there.
Deep house somewhere else.
3-Step next.
Gqom when the room requires pressure.
The global dancefloor does not necessarily require South African music to become less South African.
It may simply require South African DJs to arrive with more than one gear.
Reporting basis: Based primarily on DJ Maphorisa’s September 2026 interview with Tim Sweeney for Apple Music’s Beats in Space, in which he discusses his move towards Afro Tech, his experience playing alongside Kabza De Small in Ibiza, the tempo difference he perceives between Amapiano and faster European club environments, and the growing crossover between Amapiano, deep house, 3-Step and gqom. Apple Music currently features both the DJ Maphorisa interview and Beats In Space 219: DJ Maphorisa in its catalogue. The full interview transcript published by HYPE Magazine confirms Maphorisa’s 113 BPM comparison, his comments about Amapiano’s bounce when accelerated, his current interest in Afro Tech and his description of cross-genre movement around Kabza De Small and Dlala Thukzin. Viranova additionally checked current club and release data to avoid treating those remarks too literally. Current Beatport listings show Amapiano releases spanning multiple tempos rather than a fixed 113 BPM, while 2026 Ibiza programming confirms that Amapiano already has a physical presence on the island.
Story index Key points, people & topics
Key points & topics
- Maphorisa is not proposing life after Amapiano. He is describing a South African club future in which Amapiano, Afro Tech, 3-Step, deep house and gqom can become different gears inside the same DJ vocabulary.
- DJ Maphorisa says Amapiano’s slower rhythmic pocket can become difficult to programme inside faster international club rooms. His answer is not to speed Piano up until it loses itself, but to become increasingly fluent across...
- DJ Maphorisa says Amapiano’s slower tempo can complicate faster global club sets. His answer points towards Afro Tech, 3-Step, gqom and fluid genre movement.
Frequently asked Answers from the desk
What did DJ Maphorisa say about Amapiano’s tempo?
Maphorisa described Amapiano as sitting around 113 BPM and contrasted it with faster Ibiza club environments that he says often operate at 120 BPM and above.
Is all Amapiano exactly 113 BPM?
No. 113 BPM is Maphorisa’s shorthand for a common slower Amapiano pocket rather than a fixed genre rule. Current releases classified as Amapiano span multiple tempos.
Why does tempo matter for DJs?
Large tempo differences can make transitions between DJs and genres feel abrupt and can significantly change the energy and movement of a dancefloor.
Did DJ Maphorisa say he is leaving Amapiano?
No. He discussed moving into Afro Tech and experimenting across genres rather than abandoning Amapiano.
What genre is DJ Maphorisa exploring now?
He told Tim Sweeney that Afro Tech is currently one of the spaces drawing his attention.
Has Amapiano failed to reach Ibiza?
No. Amapiano has appeared in recurring Ibiza programming in 2026. Maphorisa’s comments are better understood as describing the difficulty of fitting slower Amapiano into certain faster club environments.
Did DJ Maphorisa play Amapiano at Hï Ibiza?
Maphorisa said that he and Kabza De Small represented Afro Tech in the Ibiza environment he discussed with Tim Sweeney.
What did Maphorisa say about Kabza De Small?
He pointed to Kabza playing in deep-house environments as part of a wider movement in which South African artists are crossing between different dance genres.
What role does Dlala Thukzin play in this shift?
Maphorisa pointed towards Thukzin while discussing the development of sounds combining elements of Afro Tech and gqom.
What is 3-Step?
3-Step is a South African dance-music form built around a distinctive three-beat rhythmic feel and has increasingly overlapped with Afro House and other local electronic styles.
How we reported this Sources, verification & accountability
- Reporting type
- Feature
- Verification
- Verified — multiple sources
- Reporter / responsible desk
- Viranova Music Desk
- Primary evidence
- Based primarily on DJ Maphorisa’s September 2026 interview with Tim Sweeney for Apple Music’s Beats in Space, in which he discusses his move towards Afro Tech, his experience playing alongside Kabza De Small in Ibiza, the tempo difference he perceives between Amapiano and faster European club environments, and the growing crossover between Amapiano, deep house, 3-Step and gqom. Apple Music currently features both the DJ Maphorisa interview and Beats In Space 219: DJ Maphorisa in its catalogue. The full interview transcript published by HYPE Magazine confirms Maphorisa’s 113 BPM comparison, his comments about Amapiano’s bounce when accelerated, his current interest in Afro Tech and his description of cross-genre movement around Kabza De Small and Dlala Thukzin. Viranova additionally checked current club and release data to avoid treating those remarks too literally. Current Beatport listings show Amapiano releases spanning multiple tempos rather than a fixed 113 BPM, while 2026 Ibiza programming confirms that Amapiano already has a physical presence on the island.
- Additional verification
- Maphorisa’s claim that Amapiano sits around 113 BPM should be treated as a practical DJ generalisation rather than a rigid definition. Current Beatport listings include Maphorisa-associated Amapiano releases at 112, 113 and 114 BPM, while Kabza De Small’s catalogue contains current Amapiano listings at higher tempos too. Similarly, his statement that Amapiano has struggled to penetrate Ibiza describes the difficulty of placing slower Amapiano inside certain faster club programmes, not a literal absence of the genre from Ibiza. Major League DJz-linked events in the 2026 Ibiza season explicitly programme Amapiano alongside Afro House and Afro Tech. The crossover Maphorisa describes can also be seen in current releases. “Maye”, released on 28 August by Dlala Thukzin and Funky Qla with Kabza De Small, DJ Maphorisa and Thatohatsi, is listed by Beatport as Afro House at 120 BPM. The same platform currently classifies other Dlala Thukzin releases across Afro House, 3-Step and gqom-related categories.
- Image
- DJ Maphorisa
Edited under our Editorial Standards and How We Report process. Spotted an error? Open the correction form below, or email [email protected].
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Filed by Viranova Music Desk for the Music desk · Johannesburg, South Africa. Published 07 Sept 2026.
Sources
Primary material
Viranova obtained, attended or witnessed this directly.
- DJ Maphorisa says his creative instinct is to move between genres once he feels he has reached a certain point with a sound Apple Music / Beats in Space with Tim Sweeney accessed 7 September 2026
- DJ Maphorisa says he is currently moving towards Afro Tech while drawing on previous experience in Afro House Apple Music / Beats in Space with Tim Sweeney accessed 7 September 2026
- DJ Maphorisa describes Amapiano as operating around 113 BPM and says faster Ibiza club programming frequently operates from around 120 BPM upward Apple Music / Beats in Space with Tim Sweeney accessed 7 September 2026
- DJ Maphorisa says accelerating Amapiano significantly can affect its overall bounce rather than only the log drum Apple Music / Beats in Space with Tim Sweeney accessed 7 September 2026
- DJ Maphorisa says he and Kabza De Small represented Afro Tech when playing around Black Coffee’s Hï Ibiza environment Apple Music / Beats in Space with Tim Sweeney accessed 7 September 2026
- DJ Maphorisa says Kabza De Small is entering deep-house spaces while South African dance music increasingly moves between Amapiano deep house 3-Step and gqom Apple Music / Beats in Space with Tim Sweeney accessed 7 September 2026
- DJ Maphorisa identifies a developing fusion between Afro Tech and gqom as one of the new South African sounds currently interesting him Apple Music / Beats in Space with Tim Sweeney accessed 7 September 2026
Secondary material
Reported first by another publication or organisation, and credited here.
- HYPE Magazine published the Beats in Space interview transcript and confirms Maphorisa’s discussion of 113 BPM Amapiano faster European club environments Afro Tech gqom and cross-genre experimentation HYPE Magazine accessed 7 September 2026
- Apple Music currently lists Beats In Space 219: DJ Maphorisa among its exclusive DJ mixes and features the accompanying DJ Maphorisa interview Apple Music accessed 7 September 2026
- Beatport lists current DJ Maphorisa-associated Amapiano releases at multiple tempos including 112 113 and 114 BPM demonstrating that 113 BPM is not a fixed genre rule Beatport accessed 7 September 2026
- Beatport lists Maye by Dlala Thukzin Funky Qla Kabza De Small DJ Maphorisa and Thatohatsi as Afro House at 120 BPM Beatport accessed 7 September 2026
- Beatport currently classifies Dlala Thukzin releases across Afro House 3-Step and gqom-related categories illustrating the stylistic movement discussed by Maphorisa Beatport accessed 7 September 2026
- Major League DJz-linked 2026 Ibiza programming explicitly combines Amapiano Afro House and Afro Tech showing that Amapiano already has a presence on the island despite Maphorisa’s comments about tempo barriers Ibiza Spotlight accessed 7 September 2026
- Scorpion Kings Live with DJ Maphorisa and Kabza De Small is scheduled for FNB Stadium on 19 September 2026 Stadium Management South Africa accessed 7 September 2026
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