Brains behind ‘KaKhoza’ hit: DJ Citie

O Nour debut feature, ‘Gcwala’s Meet and Greet Corner’, we tagged the man behind the production of the hit song ‘KaKhoza’.

His name is Sipho George Jr Tsamuel, popularly known as DJ Citie, and he hails from Ezulwini. He is a talented music producer who has produced famed records for musicians such as M Nation, Lyrikal Busta, Ladysphesh, Histo and Stella Jacobs, to name a few. During the meet and greet with Gcwala, he shared how his passion for music production came about, citing that it began at a tender age.

FRIEND

“The love started back in 2014, when I was 14 years old. I was introduced to FL Studio by a friend of mine by the name of Navie. He taught me the basics of using the software; fortunately, being creative was already in my blood because it took me about two months of practice and I was already producing beats for artists locally.

“I didn’t have recording equipment at that time, so they used to come, get beats and go record in other studios. I also loved AKA’s album titled ‘Levels’ which dropped the same year I started producing.

“My favorite songs on that album used to be ‘Run Jozi’, ‘Sim dope’ and ‘All eyes on me’. When I realised all those songs were produced by the same person, which is Tweezy, I saw him as my role model and mentor. I wanted to produce songs just like him,” DJ Citie said.

He went on to reveal how he got to produce the trending local hit record titled ‘KaKhoza’. “When we were working on the ‘Kakhoza’ song, we didn’t really think it was a special song. It was just a regular day, Young Zesh came to me when we were almost finished working on his debut album, ‘Ligcebesha’.

“We set and talked about how we could complete the album with songs for almost every person, and we realised we didn’t have a love song on the project. We then decided to have the love song, so I played him the beat that I produced a while ago, he wrote the first hook, but I didn’t really like it. I felt like it was too busy, so I told him to write something simple and catchy.

LOVED

“He wrote the ‘KaKhoza’ lyrics, and we both liked how it sounded. I went to the studio and recorded it. We vibed to it and after the recording session, we sent it to Lyrikal Busta, and he loved it. He sent us his verse the following day. We didn’t even choose it to be on the singles of the album, but when the album dropped, people just chose ‘Kakhoza’ as their hit from the album. We were really surprised because we didn’t really think it was going to be a hit and sell the album,” the producer said.

He also highlighted how it felt to produce the song and further shared where his inspiration comes from. “Producing the song ‘KaKhoza’ was a special moment for me because it made almost every artist in the country want to work with me.

RESPECTED

“The love we got for the song was too much, even today, we are still respected for this song. When it comes to inspiration, I am inspired by SouthSide, DJ Mustard, Mash Mello, Tweezy and Ruff from South Africa,” he said.

He concluded by revealing that he is working on new music with another upcoming musician. “I’m working on new music with my brother, Mshiza Mnguni. We have an upcoming extended play (EP) that will drop soon. We already have one song from the EP out titled ‘December’. I also produced about seven songs for my brother Young Zesh on his upcoming album, which drops on May 3 this year,” he said.