My first experience with amapiano was in late summer 2021 at a crowded day party in Brooklyn. The DJ had just finished a particularly rousing Afrobeats section of her set, keeping the crowd on its feet with nonstop Burna Boy, Rema, and even some old school Wizkid. Just when I thought we’d be transitioning, naturally, to the riddims of dancehall and reggae (there’s a flow to these sets, you know), the beat changed, but to something unfamiliar. The sound was decidedly African, but it wasn’t the highlife of Ghana or even the soukous of…
