Oskido: “When the major labels came knocking, we’d already done so much of the groundwork ourselves”

How did the kwaito movement progress?

It became huge. It was played all over, you know. There were so many groups coming up, and it had a wider economic impact. Finally now, as an artist, you could feed your family. You also can hire dancers, security, bar people and so on. At festivals, these mamas would come and cook, and guys would sell anything and everything. It was a foundation – artists and the wider community became empowered.

Was the sound being internationally recognised at this stage?

In around 1995, we went to the Miami Winter Conference. We were invited by Louis Vega because he had come to play here in South Africa, and he was blown away by the scene here. There was myself and other pioneering South Africa DJs, Christos, DJ Fresh, Vinnie Da Vinci and Greg Maluca. Louis was playing with Roy Ayers, and it was the first time I had seen a DJ playing with a jazz musician. I was like, ‘Wow!’. That was such an incredible time in house music. Guys like Kerry Chandler, Masters At Work were all amazing. But what we realised after that, was that if we wanted our music to break internationally, we had to up the tempo. The kwaito BPM was around 110, and we needed to speed that up for the rest of the world.

So how did things evolve after that trip to Miami?

We made an album which was in the 120 BPM range. I saw what Louis and MAW were doing adding live instrumentation to house music, so we did the same using our amazing South African musicians, including the jazz legend Hugh Masakala. I sent it to Louis Vega and within three days, I was sitting at my place and an email popped up from Masters At Work, saying they wanted to sign the record. I screamed, and my family were screaming! It felt like real recognition for South African dance music. Now it was being exported internationally. There were a lot of remixes, it was a big record by any standards and we were so proud.

You also have a strong relationship with Black Coffee, right?

Back then, I would always have kids giving me demos and all that. I had moved into a new house and this one guy came and knocked on my door, with his cousin. I was watching TV and just wanted to chill, but I answered and talked briefly and was like ‘OK, I’ll take your demo’. I left it in the demo pile and went back to the TV. But later, I put it on, and thank goodness I did. This is how Black Coffee was born. He did his first album with us, and then his second album became huge. We then did the third one, and he came to me and asked if we would allow him to go to Universal for his next record. I said, you know what, we’ve done our work, it’s time for you to fly. I’m so proud of him and what he and the new generation of South African house artists have done for the country. He’s like my little brother, we have a special bond.

Now, South Africa has another world-conquering sound, amapiano…

When you listen to a kwaito song and an amapiano song, you can hear lyrically, vibe, and tempo-wise it’s very similar. But the younger generation have come and made something new and amazing. It’s evolving, too! One of the leading amapiano guys, DJ Maphorisa, was signed to our label Kalawa, and he came up learning the business with us. Now, he’s flying doing his thing, along with so many talented new names. It’s great to see. I always call amapiano the first born of kwaito, and I’m happy with that!

Oskido plays Johannesburg’s Huddle Park on Saturday, November 30. Grab tickets to Oskido’s Big Day Out here. Listen to Oskido’s latest EP, ‘One Drum’, here.