‘I am not at war Grootman’ – DJ Maphorisa takes on Kwesta

South African producer DJ Maphorisa has taken to Instagram to express his frustrations at not getting enough recognition and acknowledgement for his contribution to Kwesta’s hit single, Ngud, featuring Cassper Nyovest.

Ngud, Kwesta’s breakout hit, is a song from South African rapper’s third studio album DaKAR II. The South African hip hop hitmaker samples Joakim’s remix of Camino Del Sol by the French-Belgian group Antena and was produced by DJ Maphorisa.

Ngud was one of the hottest South African hip hop songs of2016, pushing Kwesta’s recognition as a hip hop artist. Kwesta bagged five nominations the following year at the South African Music Awards, for best album of the year, best male artist of the year,  best rap album, collaboration of the year and record of the year.

DJ Maphorisa recently went live on his Instagram page to address issues he had with Kwesta and Ngud. On the live feed the producer spoke about how Ngud was created and how the song became a huge hit, changing Kwesta’s life along the way.

The producer said he felt Kwesta should have acknowledged the impact he had made on his life for his contributions to Ngud and he should have thanked him with a noticeable amount of money in appreciation.

Dj Maphorisa on Instagram live claiming that Kwesta didn’t pay him for producing “Ngudu”????????????????????

He also claims that after producing Ngudu, Kwesta’s career sky rocketed. He also addresses Makwa and Nota. pic.twitter.com/SIZp8b8zvw

— Man’s NOT Barry Roux  (@advovolicious) May 6, 2021

Maphorisa then went onto Twitter to make it clear he was not coming from a place of hate and that his live feed was not intended to come off as malicious.

Im not at WAR grootman @KwestaDaKAR ????????❤️

— Madumane (@DjMaphorisa) May 5, 2021

After watching the live feed, Kwesta addressed DJ Maphorisa’s claims with a post on his Twitter page.

Leroy handled the finances, Nota was the music executive and I, as Kwesta, was the catalyst to source funds through performances, endorsements etc

— #godguluva (@KwestaDaKAR) May 6, 2021