The positive and uplifting sounds and story of Black Coffee
March 7, 2016 6:45 PM   Subscribe

Nkosinathi Maphumulo is a South African musician better known as Black Coffee. He has been devoted to making music since an early age, and even though he lost the use of his left arm in a car crash while growing up in a poor township, he has gone on to become a superstar in South African music. More than a marathon-session DJ (going so far as to DJ for 60 hours), he created a multimedia stadium show, where he played with a 24 piece orchestra and additional live percussion, keyboards and singers, who all spoke with love for the unique South African experience they created.

Up to the past few years, Nkosinathi Maphumulo hasn't garnered much recognition outside of South Africa, and even though he's celebrating a decade of his work as Black Coffee. But it looks like that's all changing, as he recently won Breakthrough Artist of the year, and represented South Africa as Dance Nation of the year in the 2015 DJ Awards in Ibiza, and a month later he shared a two hour mix of "Afropolitan House Music" in his debut Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1.
posted by filthy light thief (5 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 


If you're looking for more diversity from Black Coffee, he conducted an orchestra of voices to cover his piece Rock My world. It's short (and semi-promoted as an ad), but neat.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:03 PM on March 7, 2016


Thank you. This is great!
posted by eggkeeper at 8:38 PM on March 7, 2016


One problem with the spread of Black Coffee's music is that his albums (Discogs) aren't all widely distributed. I'm not even sure if his newest album, which went platinum shortly after going on sale in South Africa, is available elsewhere except as an import.

With that, here's links to some tracks from his albums on YouTube, to give you a few more samples (album titles link to Discogs pages, except for the newest album, which is an AllMusic link because it's not yet on Discogs):

Have Another One (2007)
* Izizwe feat Busi Mhlongo
* 100 Zulu Warriors (instrumental on the album, also available with vocals by Roland Clark)
* more tracks uploaded by a fan on YouTube

Blackcoffee (2008)
* YouTube playlist

Home Brewed (2011)
* Mama feat. Ringo
* Juju feat. Zakes Bantwini (music video)
* Crazy feat. Thiwe (music video)
* Superman feat. Bucie (music video)

Africa Rising (2012)
* YouTube playlist of all 28 tracks of the live album plus 3rd "CD" deluxe album

Pieces of Me (2015)
* We Dance Again feat. Nakhane Toure, which Black Coffee used to challenge others to dance, leading to celebrities joining in the fun
* I'll Find You feat. Cara (music video)

And if you want to muck around with bypassing region blocks, you can stream the full album and the Platinum Mixed Edition on YouTube, but I couldn't access those official audio tracks in the US, so I think they may be limited to other parts of the world.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:40 AM on March 8, 2016


Well, I guess I know what will soundtrack my days at work for a while! Thanks!
posted by rtha at 8:56 AM on March 8, 2016


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