Kwaito is a music genre that emerged in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 1990s. It is a variant of house music that features the use of African sounds and samples. Kwaito songs occur at a slower tempo range than other styles of house music and often contains catchy melodic and percussive loop samples, deep bass lines, and vocals. Despite its similarities to hip hop music, kwaito has a distinctive manner in which the lyrics are sung, rapped and shouted.
Etymology
The word kwaito is an Isicamtho term from the Gauteng townships and encompasses styles that range from guz, d'gong, and isgubhu to swaito. The word originates from the Afrikaans kwaai, which when used as a slang term is the equivalent of the English term hot. Kwaito led a post-Apartheid township subculture into the mainstream. Despite the fact that the Afrikaans language is associated with the apartheid regime and racial oppression, Afrikaans words are often drawn into the Isicamtho vocabulary, reshaped and used in a related or new context. M'du Masilela, a pioneering kwaito artist, said, "When house music got popular, people from the ghetto called it Kwaito after the Afrikaans slang word kwai [sic], meaning those house tracks were hot, that they were kicking." Another Isicamtho word derived from the Afrikaans word kwaai is amakwaitosi, which means gangster. The popular kwaito artist and producer Arthur Mafokate describes the relationship between kwaito and gangsterism as music revolving around ghetto life.
History
In the backdrop of a transforming South Africa, kwaito took shape in the Soweto township at the same time Nelson Mandela took office as the first democratically elected president of South Africa. The removal of the political and economic sanctions greatly transformed the South African music industry.
One of the first kwaito singles to become a hit in South Africa was the song "Kaffir" by Arthur Mafokate, which illustrated the freedom of expression resulting from political liberation in South Africa. House music arrived in Cape Town in the early 1990s at raves such as the World Peace Party and in the original venue Club Eden, and later Euphoria and DV8. This spread northward, where, in the mid-1990s, the genre was becoming popular in Johannesburg clubs such as 4th World, and local artists fused its sound with that of South African music. Arthur Mafokate, Oskido, Boom Shaka, and Mdu Masilela were among the first artists to produce a huge kwaito hit and popularize it in and outside of the Black townships. However, it was only after 2001 that kwaito artists and music found their way to Europe and the United States.
Newfound freedom gave South African musicians easier access to international works and a greater ability to freely express themselves. As a result, kwaito has also been known as the expression of this new freedom, and many anti-apartheid chants have been used as lyrics for kwaito songs. Kwaito has been called the music that defines the generation who came of age after apartheid. Its pulsing dance beat evolved from styles such as mbaqanga and dancehall, as well as house and disco.
Schools in the townships were unable to fund programs such as music classes to enhance the learning experience of their students. As kwaito did not require a formal knowledge of music theory, large spaces to rehearse, and expensive instruments, it was easily accessible to individuals in these downtrodden communities.
As kwaito became increasingly mainstream in South Africa, collaborations, such as between South African R&B artists Danny K and Mandoza, have become more common. Kwaito hits often attract a bit of media attention, as Arthur's August 2005 release "Sika Lekhekhe" (a Zulu phrase literally meaning "Cut this cake" and figuratively "Have sex with me") did. The song was banned by a SABC radio station and Arthur had to reshoot its video after several complaints from viewers who were offended by its sexually suggestive content. Similarly, the kwaito band Boom Shaka was widely criticized by the political establishment for its rendition of the national anthem to a kwaito beat. As much as it was started and popularized by Johannesburg based artists. In Durban, KwaZulu Natal Sandy B came with his album AmaJovi Jovi in 1994 which had to be the big national hit and the first kwaito album from that province.