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The revamped SA Music Awards (Samas) categories have set tongues wagging in the music industry.
What has irked the purists is the expansion of the definition of the Best Kwaito Album category to include gqom, new age kwaito, amapiano and “other types of kwaito subcategory music”.
They were asking themselves: “What the heck is amapiano and new age kwaito?”
Responding to serious concerns over the fudging of kwaito and the celebrated genre of gqom, Samas’ head of operations, Thobela Dlamini, said the changes were based on various movements within the genres.
He assured City Press that the new categories were the result of a thorough consultation process with big players in the industry and with the steering committee which reviewed last year’s performance.
“We wanted to do things right. We have engaged with people in the industry and the decisions were informed by a collective,” Dlamini said.
But those changes weren’t the only ones that surprised the artists.
Best Rap Album is now Best Hip-Hop Album, thereby allowing deejays to enter their albums, in addition to rap records.
Best Africa Artist has changed to Best African Artist. Besides being grammatically correct, this has also been made a special category so that South African artists can enter their works and compete for the bragging rights of being named best artist on the continent.
Dlamini said: “Look at rap being changed to hip-hop. The movement is growing, it is a broader context and it covers many aspects.”
He said that, as a result, a person like Speedsta, who is a deejay but makes hip-hop, has become eligible. The view was that it encompassed everyone: rap, trap and skhanda.
When asked why gqom, which has grown by leaps and bounds, was still considered a subgenre, Dlamini said industry leaders and the Samas steering committee agreed that kwaito and gqom were similar.
The differences lay in the beat construction and beat signatures.
“To the untrained ear, these differences can seem minimal. But the move to include gqom in the kwaito category was not thought up by untrained individuals,” Dlamini explained.
“The public is always considered, but, at the end of the day, it is an industry decision informed by committees where both Samas and industry captains discuss the changes.
“The peeps who sit on these committees, contrary to popular belief, are artists who run labels and the like that meet with us. They let us know what their feelings are about what we do.”
Meanwhile, DJ Maphorisa, who was conflicted about the change, said: “I was in the office when I heard this and I was just like ‘eish, we just want gqom to rise’.”
Maphorisa said he felt kwaito and gqom were similar, shared the same roots and were both nurtured by street culture. But the difference was in the stylings of the music.
“Gqom is in your face,” the passionate legend said.
“The last real kwaito we experienced was Big Nuz and gqom needs to be moved. How does it work, like kwaito/gqom? I’m not sure about this at all,” he lamented.
Maphorisa has been making both kwaito and house music for quite some time, but said he had never been to one of Samas’ committee meetings.
“If I was involved I would’ve told them to create a new [gqom] genre and category. It is like we’re moving backwards.”
Dlamini said: “It is not a question of one being stronger than the other as music evolves. I was speaking to KO about kwaito, and how some people talk about gqom falling under one banner.
“Kwaito is one of the genres that has given birth to many subcultures. We all love old music, but we love it more when the older sounds are rejuvenated and have evolved.”
