LISTEN | Amapiano ‘hunk’ Sushi B leans into sound, not spotlight

Amapianoheartthrob Sushi B has much more to offer to the genre than just his attractive looks. Sushi B — real nameKenny Magampa— is carving out his signature “private school amapiano” sound with hits likeShakespeareandAmigos. Sowetan gets to know the rising music producer and artist.

You’ve been dubbed the ‘hunk of amapiano’. Are you aware of that title? Honestly, no.

I mean, people call me different things; some say Sushi, some say other names, but I didn’t know about that one. I’m just a guy making the music I love. That’s all I really focus on.

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Who is Sushi B, and how different is he from Kenny? It’s the same person, but Sushi is more the creative side of me. He’s the one who’s been building for years: like 10 or even 12 years of creating music.

He’s just obsessed with music… like a creative junkie. I started off as a rapper when I was about 12. I used to get bullied a lot growing up, from around six years old.

Music became an escape for me. I wasn’t doing well in school, and I needed something that made me feel good about myself. My older brother put me on to hip-hop, and from there it clicked.

I was using an iPod Touch at first, recording with earphones, and then eventually I got a laptop and started making music from scratch. It’s actually funny…in high school, I played basketball, and the guys used to call me “Sushi King” because of Kenny Kunene. Then the “B” came from “bars” because I used to rap so well.

It was competition with my brother. He made an amapiano beat one day, and I was like, “Hold on…if you can do that, I can do it better.” We started making beats every day. That’s when I fell in love with it because I could bring in other influences like hip-hop, R&B, Latin and jazz.

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