Cutting his own desired path of Nyakanyaka music and reinvigorating the amapiano scene, record producer Ntsako XVI is the fresh blood coursing through the veins of dance music innovation. Braiding together elements of house, hip-hop, and all things kasi to create hybrid music, the beatmaker is taking things back to the grassroots and unifying worlds that have since become estranged from one another over the years.
While COVID-19 choked the world as we knew it, bringing everything to a screeching standstill and confining people to their homes, amapiano was one of the genres that bloomed during those dark times. Hitting its golden age peak, it birthed some of the finest acts of the yanos, locally and abroad. Ntsako spoke about the impact the time had on his music career.
Ntsako XVI | SUPPLIED
“I used to watch a lot of lives during the COVID lockdown days. People were really making music seriously during that period, and witnessing it made me realise that music is something I want to do. I’ve always been an indoors person, so that time I decided that I might as well use that personality trait and make music once. That’s how I got into making music,” he said.
XVI dropped his single “Ngeke” featuring some of the genre’s most noticeable names, including Ch’cco, Scotts Maphuma, Uncool_MC, and Shaun 101. The producer talked briefly about the unlikely creation of what eventually became a TikTok hit.
“We were all actually tired when we made ‘Ngeke’, and I remember vividly how hot it was in that studio,” he said. “I initially came up with the beat, but I was advised during the creation process to change the bass. So I changed it up and made it simpler so that it could have a bit more bounce. The energy started picking up from there, and the guys came in and added their own verses, and from then on it was on.”
Check out “Ngeke”
The piano soundman talked about how crucial it is to branch out and not limit himself when cultivating his sound.
“As a producer, I’ve always been open-minded because if you want to grow your sound, you need to be versatile. You need to be capable of expanding yourself, and that won’t happen if you box yourself in one thing. In order to grow your artistry, you need to have a lot of elements, and you must also be a person who is willing to try out everything. From Gqom to whatever—everything. It’s important for me so that I can keep having ideas of where to take my sound,” he said.
He touched on the software he favoured when making beats.
“I’m not a producer who has a favourite plugin because I like looking for new sounds, yabo? I mostly use the usual stuff that’s available, like Nexus and Lounge Lizard,” he said.
Ntsako XVI | SUPPLIED
Ntsako expressed optimism concerning the current trajectory of amapiano, which, over the past several years, has undergone something of a creative winter.
“Amapiano definitely has ups and downs,” he said with a tone of regret. “But I do believe that it’s still going to grow. People are coming in with different sounds, and it will pick up again and be something bigger as time goes by.”
Ntsako singled out Gqom as the one sound he’d love to take on one day.
“I really love Gqom music. Too much. Most of the music from that side bangs, so if there’s one genre I’d like to try out someday, it would be it,” he said.
