Young Stunna is undoubtedly one of the surprise stars to emerge out of Amapiano in 2021. The Adiwele himaker recently made his transition from Hip Hop to Amapiano and after signing to platinum selling producer, Kabza De Small’s label, his rise in the game was immediate. We chat to him about what he was doing before being an Amapiano star, how his transition into the genre was and what growing up in the East Rand taught him.
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Young Stunna recently released his debut album Notumata, a stunning body of work. The Amapiano project puts into context the greatness of the genre but also the talent that Young Stunna possesses. The former Hip Hop artist effortlessly tells stories of triumph, struggle and identity in the album. He also packs within the project, a sizable amount of dance tunes. We ask him what he was doing before he struck gold with Amapiano.
“I was a Hip Hop broer, straight Hip Hop broesr. I started tapping into Amapiano now”, he explains. Saying that he started writing his own lyrics in 2012/13. And in the years following, Hip hop has been his go-to genre for self-expression.
Although Young Stunna mentions that he loves all kinds of music, Amapiano felt natural for him to gravitate towards. And this is because he says that he doesn’t see any difference between the two genres. “When I listen to Hip Hop and then listen to Amapiano, I don’t hear a difference,” he says.
Making a case that when you listen to certain chords in both genres, there isn’t much of a difference except for the tempo. And he maintains that this is the secret to the popularity of Amapiano, the fact that so many of the same sounds we hear in our favourite genres are present in the relatively new genre. “Now it turns into this sound that you think you haven’t heard before but it’s always been there. When you listen to Hip Hop, you can see that you can actually do what you’ve been doing on Amapiano. I can actually rap on Amapiano beats”.
