South Africans Come to Samthing Soweto’s Defense After Being Excluded From the Credits of “Amalanga Awafani”
Record producer Mas Musiq released “Amalanga Awafani” alongside Lawd Weezy, To Starquality and DJ Maphorisa. The single comes as a forerunner to Mas Musiq’s forthcoming album, Lane Yam, due to drop on the 13th of September 2024, despite not being explicitly included in the project.
Released on the 3rd of September, the song sparked controversy after the stark omission of singer-songwriter Samthing Soweto, who was given neither songwriting nor feature credits on the new single.
The former member of acclaimed acapella group The Soil responded to the release of the song by reposting Mas Musiq’s social media rollout with a broken heart emoji.
Before the official release of the single, a video of Samthing Soweto in studio with Mas Musiq went viral, showing the SAMA-winning songbird performing a snippet of the song, which would eventually drop without him being listed as one of the songwriters or the performing artists.
On the 31st of July 2024, when asked by a fan on X when “Amalanga AwafanI” was going to be out, Soweto answered: “As soon as the master share is allocated accordingly.”
Netizens on X were furious over the developments, with tweeps coming to the defense of the “Akulaleki” superstar, urging everybody to start a boycotting campaign against the song until he’s been properly credited.
One of the most prominent industry names to be vocal about what is happening was embattled amapiano vocalist Sir Trill. Already embroiled in a controversial disagreement with DJ Maphorisa over allegations of not getting compensated as well as getting blackballed by the producer-cum-DJ, Sir Trill tweeted a curt post with the words: “Iyanyanyisa le.”
@JoeFerg58678029 called for the masses to not give the song any attention until the credits have been amended to include Soweto, saying: “Boycott this song please, until Samthing Soweto is credited.”
@moesuttle called for drastic action against the song, mobilising disgruntled tweeps to swarm Apple Music to report the credibility of the credits, saying: “If you guys really care about Samthing Soweto, please go on Apple Music, search the song, view credits, and report the song for having missing credits. We cannot sit and watch Mas Musiq and Maphorisa profit off Sam’s talent.”