{
  "slug": "kwaito",
  "name": "Kwaito",
  "aliases": [
    "kwaai",
    "south african house",
    "township house"
  ],
  "description": "House music slowed to a walking pace in Johannesburg townships in the first years after apartheid, with the vocal shifted from singing to a half-spoken chant in tsotsitaal. The sound of a generation that had just been given a country.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "Johannesburg, South Africa",
    "year": 1993
  },
  "lineage": [
    {
      "genre": "chicago-house",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/chicago-house/",
      "inherited": "The imported twelve-inches, played too slow. Johannesburg DJs pitched Chicago and New York house down towards 100 BPM to fit local dancing, and producers then simply made records at the speed the records were played at."
    },
    {
      "genre": "dancehall",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dancehall/",
      "inherited": "The voice. The chanted, repeated, half-sung vocal over a shared rhythm track is a deejay's technique rather than a house singer's, and kwaito's slang-heavy delivery works the way a Kingston toast does."
    }
  ],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 100,
    "max": 115
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-29",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/kwaito/",
  "trackCount": 8,
  "curatedBy": [],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "arthur-mafokate--kaffir",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/arthur-mafokate--kaffir/",
      "title": "Kaffir",
      "artist": "Arthur Mafokate",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/arthur-mafokate/",
      "year": 1995,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A dance record built around a plea not to be called a slur, and the first real controversy of the new South Africa. Sold over half a million copies and defined what the genre was allowed to be about.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "dancing-to-bad-news",
          "name": "Dancing to Bad News",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/dancing-to-bad-news/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-gqom-out-of-durban",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — Out of Durban",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-gqom-out-of-durban/"
        },
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Arthur%20Mafokate%20Kaffir",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=sep8mvPZW6s",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "mdu-masilela--tsiki-tsiki",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/mdu-masilela--tsiki-tsiki/",
      "title": "Tsiki Tsiki",
      "artist": "M'du Masilela",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/mdu-masilela/",
      "year": 1994,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "From the debut of the producer the scene calls the godfather. The template arrives here: house architecture, township tempo, and a vocal that talks rather than sings.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "nineteen-ninety-four",
          "name": "1994",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/theme/nineteen-ninety-four/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/M'du%20Masilela%20Tsiki%20Tsiki",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=zrhZHLbmw_o",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "mandoza--nkalakatha",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/mandoza--nkalakatha/",
      "title": "Nkalakatha",
      "artist": "Mandoza",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/mandoza/",
      "year": 2000,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The record that crossed every line the country still had. A kwaito track adopted by rugby crowds and suburbs alike, and the closest thing post-apartheid South Africa had to a shared anthem.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Mandoza%20Nkalakatha",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=b28vJvntyUM",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "brenda-fassie--vulindlela",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/brenda-fassie--vulindlela/",
      "title": "Vulindlela",
      "artist": "Brenda Fassie",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/brenda-fassie/",
      "year": 1997,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Not strictly kwaito and impossible to leave out. Fassie was already a star when the genre arrived, and she absorbed it into the biggest South African record of the decade.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Brenda%20Fassie%20Vulindlela",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=JB-OGtSEc64",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "tkzee--shibobo",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/tkzee--shibobo/",
      "title": "Shibobo",
      "artist": "TKZee",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/tkzee/",
      "year": 1998,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Recorded with the footballer Benni McCarthy for the World Cup, and far better than that description promises. TKZee brought rock dynamics and real songwriting to a form built on loops.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/TKZee%20Shibobo",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=BhdxwySgEPQ",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "boom-shaka--its-about-time",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/boom-shaka--its-about-time/",
      "title": "It's About Time",
      "artist": "Boom Shaka",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/boom-shaka/",
      "year": 1993,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The group that made kwaito a pop proposition rather than a producer's genre, and took the criticism for it. Everything the scene later argued about is already latent here.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Boom%20Shaka%20It's%20About%20Time",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=4w9vCkGNOi8",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "trackKey": "mashamplani--vokol-as-niks",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/mashamplani--vokol-as-niks/",
      "title": "Vokol as Niks",
      "artist": "Mashamplani",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/mashamplani/",
      "year": 1995,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Mdu's group at their most functional — a chant, a bassline and no interest in a chorus. Kwaito working exactly as designed, with nothing added for the radio.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Mashamplani%20Vokol%20as%20Niks",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/search?q=Mashamplani%20Vokol%20as%20Niks",
          "exact": false
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 8,
      "trackKey": "zola--mdlwembe",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/zola--mdlwembe/",
      "title": "Mdlwembe",
      "artist": "Zola",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/zola/",
      "year": 2000,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The hardest voice the genre produced, from Soweto, delivered with a seriousness that made the party records around it sound like a first draft.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Zola%20Mdlwembe",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=lR5ZjPcM4AM",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}