Official 2026 release photograph: Secrets of the WRLD — Apple Music
JAZZWRLD is Kamohelo Monese, born in Lesotho and raised in Carletonville, the gold-mining town on Gauteng's Far West Rand. He first produces as Jazzworx, rebranding as his ambitions widen, and grows up steeped in jazz — an influence audible in the warm chords he threads through 3-step, the Afro-house-adjacent sound he builds with vocalist Thukuthela.
He produces Ciza's "Isaka (6am)", which spends nine weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's South Africa Songs chart in 2025; by year's end, five of his songs with Thukuthela — among them "Vuka" with Oscar Mbo and "Uzizwa Kanjani" with MaWhoo and GL_Ceejay — have reached No. 1 across Southern Africa. An armed robbery at his home in August 2025 costs him equipment and unreleased music; he keeps working, and plays the Cape Town International Jazz Festival in March 2026.
Davido’s “I Know Who I Be” is more than a superstar single. With JAZZWRLD and GL_Ceejay in the frame, it shows how South African 3-Step producers are becoming architects of Pan-African hitmaking.
JAZZWRLD and Thukuthela’s BET Awards presence was not about collecting a trophy. It was about 3-Step becoming visible in global media rooms while carrying its South African centre with it.
Thatohatsi’s “Ama Hem Hem” with Sjava and ShaunMusiQ turns a seven-minute single into a cinematic statement about patience, mood and visual music identity.
Apple Music and Shazam are showing two different sides of South African music consumption: what people repeatedly stream, and what they urgently want to identify when a song catches them in real life.
SAMA32’s shortlist shows a South African music industry no longer defined by one centre. From Durban Gqom to Maskandi, Amapiano, Jazz, Gospel and regional scenes, the country’s sound is spreading power across many hubs.
Jazzwrld is billed alongside Thukuthela for the first full live-band edition of the We'R Afro tour in Africa, from 18:00 at Uhuru Gardens. Further guests were still to be announced at the time of listing.
Jazzwrld and Thukuthela return to London for a larger headline show after selling out Village Underground in May 2026. Doors 22:00 to 04:00, last entry 02:00, 18+.
