It's a beef we never saw coming but two of South African music's heavyweights are going head to head and we don't know who to side with. Legendary maskandi duo Shwi Nomtekhala and king of the Yanoz, DJ Maphorisa are not seeing eye to eye and this can't be good for local music lovers.
Reports in this weekend's Sunday papers claim that the maskandi duo is upset with DJ Maphorisa over unpaid royalties, and the Scorpion Kings hitmaker is said to be blue ticking their attempts to get paid for work done in 2018.
This story started so positively last year. In the weeks building up to the release of Mlindo's debut album, DJ Maphorisa announced that his flagship singer had secured a collaboration with two of Mzansi's most important musos to date: uShwi Nomtekhala. The duo gave us the timeless hit ngafa and were ready to lend their creative talents to Mlindo's new record.
Twitter embed
Although the collaboration worked out --the song We got to hear their single Wamuhle on Mlindo's debut album, Emakhaya -- it looks as if their relationship has not improved beyond their work last year because this week, Shwi and Mtekhala took to the papers to complain about monies they were allegedly owed by the superstar producer.
Shwi's manager spoke to Sunday World and revealed, “The agreement was that we would work first and the paperwork would be seen at the end of everything else. When it was time for the paperwork we were constantly told he was too busy, busy, busy. That started irritating us, because we did what he had asked us to do, now he is giving us the runaround."
The manager also added, “Maphorisa has a problem. We don’t know if he is undermining us because we sing Maskandi,” DJ Maphorisa has yet to respond to the allegations in the papers but according to Sunday World, as soon as investigations into this story began, the Shwi received a request to send the duo's banking details.
What do you think is the best way for all parties to overcome this drama?
