Black Coffee

From:South Africa

DJ style:House

Best known for:Being Africa’s most famous DJ

In October last year, Black Coffee gave an interview to business podcast The Diary Of A CEO. Running at just over an hour and with nearly a quarter of a million views, it was one of his most revealing interviews to date. The DJ/producer, real name Nkosinathi Maphumulo, went deep on his backstory, his early years growing up in a township, exposure to gospel, fusion, jazz and classical music, and the accident that led to him losing the full use of his left hand.

Coffee was a leading pioneer in the Afro house sound as it grew in the late ‘00s, releasing the now classic ‘Home Brewed’ LP and ‘Africa Rising’ DVD, which saw him performing with a 24-piece orchestra to an audience of 8,000. In 2022 he became the first African to win the Grammy award for Best Dance/Electronic Album, and he’s still making history, this time as the first South African to headline a show at Madison Square Gardens in New York, the biggest show of his career to date. “As long as I’m surrounded by music, that’s all I want to do,” he said in The Diary Of A CEO interview. “It brought me so much peace, happiness — this is why I share it. I share it because of what it does to me, it’s my way of healing people the way it’s healed me.”

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Le Shuuk

From: Stuttgart, Germany

DJ style:“Hard dance / electro / hardstyle / techno / EDM.”

Best known for: “The tracks ‘Sandmann’, ‘Toast Hawaii’ and ‘Konje’, as well as being a resident and face of WORLD CLUB DOME Festival.”

A mainstay of the electronic scene for almost 20 years now, Stuttgart native Le Shuuk is no stranger to the rigours of touring. In the last 12 months, he decided to overhaul his lifestyle, committing to exercising regularly and abstaining from drinking during his shows. As a result, the DJ and producer, who is a favourite of the German festival circuit, says that he is having more fun on stage than ever. He credits these changes with allowing him to connect on a deeper level with his audiences, as well as redefine his career goals and look with renewed focus to the future.

The new healthy habits clearly agree with him. As well as recently performing at festivals and clubs across Europe, and holding his own Le Shuuk & Friends parties in his home city, he continues to build on the momentum of tracks like 2020’s peak-rave, German language tune ‘Sandmann’ and 2021’s hypnotic ‘Goodbye’ (featuring Xillions). This year he had another star turn with the explosive ‘Konje’, a collaboration with B-Stylezz that combined modern techno and EDM with the traditional elements of Bulgarian folk songs, with the track receiving big support from the likes of Armin van Buuren, Amelie Lens, and Joyhauser.