Inside DJ Shimza and Maphorisa's 'friendly fight' over uplifting upcoming artists

DJ Maphorisa sparked a fiery debate after airing his concerns about DJ Shimza and other established artists not including or crediting upcoming musicians on their projects.

Maphorisa took to Shimza's comments recently on Instagram, saying that Shimza was constantly working on projects alone without crediting other contributors to his songs. 

“Why you always make music alone, no young up coming nyana every time Shimza alone. Grow this afro movement, uplift young talent bro please, that's why they end up hating us cause you close doors. Don't tell me u made that beat alone, sorry but I had to take out my chest in front of everyone. Love you mfanaka but I can't, DJ Maphorisa wrote.

Shimza quickly defended himself, saying he was building the South African music industry through his record label and Kunye events.

“That's what my label Kunye Records is for Phori, that's why I started the label, that's why we now have an event called Kunye that showcases the music and streams the sets online so that people can put the face to the names bro. We all work differently bro,” Shimza wrote. 

DJ Black Coffee went on to share a private conversation between the two artists where Shimza said he had failed working with upcoming artists because they had the tendency of “dragging their feet”.

Prince Kaybee took to Twitter sharing the same sentiments as Maphorisa.

“Art was never designed to be owned by one person. We are obligated to pay it forward & ensure that the art lives beyond us. We must uplift young artists! That other guy can just tell Drake, 'yo we have Kabza I want you to meet him', but because he is a one-man show ...”