How Amapiano’s first lady is defining her own lane

I remember the first time I heard of Nobantu Vilakazi, it was in a Musa Keys’ song,Vula Mlomo, in 2021. Every taxi, tavern, club and bottle store played it as though it were stitched into the national soundtrack of that year. The bass travelled through minibus speakers with a slight crackle, it poured into township streets on warm afternoons and it followed you into late-night grooves where amapiano was less a genre and more a shared pulse.

But beyond the production, beyond the now-iconic log drum bounce, it was her chant that captured most of us. She delivered it with so much conviction and belief that it didn’t feel like a background element; it felt like a statement. There was authority in her tone.

Certainty. The kind of presence that makes you stop mid-conversation and ask: “Who is that?” even when the rest of the country seemsto know. “I say Nobantu Vilakazi is a young woman in the entertainment industry,” she tells me.

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“I’m a DJ, I’m a vocalist, I’m a songwriter and I’m a hitmaker.” It’s a bold claim in a genre that has often centred on male producers and DJs but she doesn’t waver. When I ask whether the title invites criticism, she answers plainly: “No, I can’t get in trouble because people gave me that.” In many ways, they did. Through chants that became cultural markers.

Through performances that lingered long after the set ended. Througha tone that felt township-rooted yet globally resonant. Although amapiano might be where many discovered her, her foundation runs deeper. Before the chants that dominated airwaves, she was immersed in the house scene as a DJ.

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