Kabza De Small enters the 32nd South African Music Awards as the most nominated artist in the initial SAMA32 field, with four nominations spanning his work as a producer and collaborator.
The nominations place the amapiano heavyweight at the centre of this year’s awards competition, which will culminate at the Sun City Superbowl in the North West on Saturday, 15 August.
Kabza De Small’s album Bab’Motha is nominated for Best Amapiano Album and Best Engineered Album. He also appears twice in the Best Collaboration category, for Abantwana Bakho and Dlala Ka Yona.
The four nominations illustrate the different dimensions of his contribution to contemporary South African music. He is being recognised not only for an album but also for the technical work behind its production and for collaborations with other artists.
Abantwana Bakho is credited to DJ Maphorisa and XDuppy, with Kabza De Small featuring Thatohatsi, Young Stunna and Nkosazana Daughter. Dlala Ka Yona brings together DJ Maphorisa and XDuppy with Enny Man Da Guitar, Focalistic, Ricky Lenyora, Uncool MC and Mellow & Sleazy.
Kabza’s SAMA32 showing comes against the background of a career closely associated with the rise of amapiano, the South African house-music form that has become one of the country’s most visible contemporary musical exports.
His work with DJ Maphorisa under the Scorpion Kings banner has been particularly important to his public profile. The partnership has produced albums, live performances and collaborations that helped establish the pair as central figures in the amapiano era.
Kabza has also previously been recognised by the SAMAs. At the 29th edition, he was nominated for Male Artist of the Year and Album of the Year for KOA II Part 1. The latter nomination placed him alongside artists including AKA, K.O and Sjava.
SAMA32 consequently represents another stage in a relationship between Kabza and the country’s principal music awards.
His current nominations also demonstrate how amapiano now occupies several spaces within the awards structure. Bab’Motha competes in the genre category while its engineering is separately recognised, and Kabza’s collaborations place him in a field that includes some of the most prominent names associated with the contemporary sound.
The Recording Industry of South Africa’s chief executive, Nhlanhla Sibisi, described this year’s nominees as representing the depth and variety of South African music, with established artists appearing alongside newer voices.
For Kabza De Small, the numbers tell a particularly clear story.
Four nominations give him more opportunities than any other artist in the initial SAMA32 nominations, and they cover production, engineering and collaboration as well as amapiano itself.
The question at Sun City will be whether those four nominations translate into one or more trophies.
Until then, Kabza De Small arrives at SAMA32 with perhaps the clearest statistical advantage of any artist in the field.