By: Natasha Archary
Josiah De Disciple, the South African DJ and record producer is owning his title as the “Grootman” on the SA music scene.
Best known for his musical partnership with Mr JazziQ on JazziDisciples, the popular DJ is now enjoying a solo career that is taking off.
The pair went their separate ways in 2018 to focus on their individual brands and Josiah Makoela aka Josiah De Disciple joins DJ Keyez on the Ultimate Kaya 959 Top 30 to share what he’s been up to.
While a lot of people assume he’s from Soweto, the Dala What You Must hitmaker is actually from Gomora, Alexandra.
“A lot of people think I grew up in Soweto and that it’s home, and it’s because I used to gig a lot in Soweto. But I’m actually from Alex, better known as Gomora which is why I dropped my album, Sounds of Gomora this year.”
Josiah De Disciple shares that he’s from Gomora, Alexandra township
WATCH: The Gomora Grootman on the Ultimate Kaya 959 Top 30
Throwback to JazziDisciples
It was during his high school years that Josiah got into mixing and it was through conversations with mutual friends that he found out about Tumelo Manyoni known professionally as Mr JazziQ,
“We started hanging tight, tight, tight when both our girlfriends were working at the same retail store. You know how it is, we’d meet up when we’d go to pick up our girls and we’d talk.
At the time we were playing in gigs in Alex and you know how it is, you’re given a timeslot, 30 mins for a set. So, we’d talk and I said to him what if we joined our set and played for an hour, and that’s how we started off.”
Josiah on how he met Mr JazziQ
Not long after, the duo started producing their own music and so JazziDisciples was born. From a bedroom studio, both Josiah and Mr JazziQ are now two of the most recognised producers currently.
Receiving a lot of criticism when he started getting into Amapiano, Josiah says it took a while for JazziDisciples to get comfortable with the genre.
“There were only 5 people who you can say are the pioneers of amapiano really. It was tough getting into it because you know in eKasi if people don’t like what you’re doing they will let you know.
Like we were told we were just making noise, so yeah it took a while for us to find our feet.”
Sekusele Kancane is his latest track which features Nobuhle and the “shy guy” shares with DJ Keyez that there are days when the music just flows and others when it’s a struggle to even get it right.
Also read: WATCH: Dinky Kunene is ‘Connected’ on The Ultimate Kaya 959 Top 30
