From Limpopo to the world, how Master KG became a viral phenomenon

A young boy from Limpopo village Kgaogelo Moagi, well known as Master KG, would never have thought international success such as this after releasing Jerusalema nearly a year go.

Speaking to The Citizen, Master KG said the sudden international fame and recognition had been quite a ride.

“Life has been awesome, I am recognised all over the world. Even my old songs, people have now started listening to, it’s been amazing.”

ALSO READ: ‘I used to dream of such moments when I started making music’ says Master KG on going global

The musician and producer’s journey started in a village called Calais in Tzaneen, where he started listening to the radio quite often when he was 13 years old.

“That’s when I realised that I really loved music. I became friends with people who knew a lot about music software and making beats. My uncle brought me a computer so that I could finally start making my own beats in 2015.”

The music he was making started attracting the attention in the village with taverns beginning to play his beats.

ALSO READ: Master KG ‘Jerusalema’ fourth most-searched song on Shazam

During those early stages, Master KG made Situation in 2016, which went viral in Limpopo. The song caught the attention of record label Open Mic Productions who signed him that same year.

“I then created the track Skeleton Move. We tried to push the song in 2017 but it didn’t catch on. We released the song again in February 2018 and to our surprise, the song went viral. We started seeing people posting dance videos to the song. It kind of took two years for that song to finally pick up.”

From there the young producer went on to create his next big hit, Jerusalema with Nomcebo Zikedo which has seen global success.

In spite of the success of the song locally and internationally it was not recognised by the 2020 South African Music Awards (SAMAs) for song of the year.

With many people voicing the opinions on how the award show ignored possibly the biggest song of the year, Master KG isn’t too worked up about the snub.

“With the SAMAs I didn’t expect us to get nominated. It was actually Skeleton Move where I was hurt the most because we submitted the song and we did so much to it. But with Jerusalema not being nominated, I don’t really have much to say about that.”

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.