Yoga Practice & the Jammin’ Sounds of South African House Music

I’ve been super interested in different ethnicities and cultures lately, and it’s stemming from listening to house music from South Africa. Whether it’s a downtempo slow burner, or a 125bpm 4/4 floor filler — there is a track for everyone to enjoy.

South Africa has a burgeoning house music scene, with an ethnic flair that isn’t easily replicated from other locales across the world. One of the leader’s in promoting South African dance culture, is a music blog & YouTube channel out of Italy, called Mr Afro Deep.

Mr Afro Deep features the freshest cuts coming out of South Africa, showcasing songs characterized by a thumping 4/4 beat, native South African drum rhythms, singing, local native chants, and a bouncing groove. You just can’t help your shoulders from starting to bounce as your body starts jiving along to the beat & rhythm of the South African percussion.

These tracks would make an excellent addition to a yoga class playlist, celebrating diversity in music is a great way of introducing students to a new sound coming out of South Africa, and melds perfectly with those sweaty vinyasa sessions.

This set from DJ Black Coffee from a MixMag party during Miami Winter Music Conference 2017, was my first experience of seeing DJ Black Coffee perform.

If you wonder why he keeps his left hand in his pocket, it’s because he was in a traffic accident in his late teens, which left his left arm paralyzed. He’s worked incredibly hard over the years to not just learn how to DJ with one hand, but to actually become an incredibly talented & knowledgable producer.

He has helped a bunch of other talented South African artists release music, and he has even set-up a music school for children called F.A.M. This is what he had to say about the project:

F.A.M Academy Fashion Art and Music Academy is a new project we are embarking on.Our goal is to build an Academy for talented youth on these 3 professions.We want to create Jobs for the Students straight out of the Academy….for Music if you get admitted as a student you also receive a Recording Contract and you’ll be taught about Music,Branding and Social Media,Music Business and more…2nd Year you release you 1st Single then on Final year you work on your Album and launch it at your Final Recital.We currently looking for premises for this Project…..We gonna be raising Funds for this project in every part of the World where we have footprint as Artists starting from here at Home. This is not for us but for the Future Generations. We gonna need any kind of assistance with this Project. Foxes have holes….Birds have Nests….Children of Africa have nothing.

Check out the mix below, and some of my favorite tracks from the mix – with links to buy! Support the artists so they can keep creating!

DJ BLACK COFFEE in The Lab Miami for Miami Music Week