Awarded for \u201cSubconsciously,\u201d the album featuring Cassie, and Pharrel Williams among other artists, the win establishes Black Coffee (born Nkosinathi Innocent Sizwe Maphumulo) as a global name to be reckoned with. For him, South Africa, and the rest of the continent, the Grammy also expands the global consumer\u2019s imagination of the variety of music made in Africa by Africans.<\/p>\n
Until yesterday\u2019s events, South Africa had won seven Grammy awards between 1988 and 2018. Five of those went to Ladysmith Black Mambazo, an all-male chorale group formed in the 1960s that sings in indigenous South African styles. The other two have been by the Soweto Gospel choir.<\/p>\n
Six of the country\u2019s seven awards have been in one or other variation of the Grammy\u2019s \u2018Global Music\u2019 award category, and each one is valuable. Artists from other African countries have won awards in the Global Music (formerly called World Music) category, including Beninese singer Angelique Kidjo who won it again this year for the fourth time\u2014a new record. Nigerian star artist Burna Boy got his first ever Grammy in that category last year.<\/p>\n
But Black Coffee\u2019s win in the Dance\/Electronic album spot echoes calls to recognize the dynamism of African music beyond an Afrobeats label that, while popular, forces diverse African sounds (of which there are various in Black Coffee\u2019s South Africa alone) under a restrictive umbrella.<\/p>\n
It is telling that Wizkid, and Burna Boy, two of the continent\u2019s biggest artists, are still only able to land Grammy nominations in the Global Music category. For a feel of what that means, you have to scroll towards the end of the page for the 64th Grammy\u2019s to find their names.<\/p>\n
South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said Black Coffee\u2019s award will inspire \u201ca new generation of talent to take over the world,\u201d in a tweet from his official account. One imagines the hope is that they take over in more mainstream categories, like Dance\/Electronic, reggae, blues, and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This year\u2019s Grammy award for the best Dance\/Electronic album went to Black Coffee, the South African producer and DJ. The feat puts him in a roll of honor that includes Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Daft Punk since the category was introduced in 2005.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":4916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,16],"tags":[7,32,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-4919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"category-news","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-news"},"yoast_head":"\n