SOUTH AFRICAN BREAKOUTS MAJOR LEAGUE DJZ AND MAJOR LAZER SHARE NEW TRACK “DESIGNER” FEATURING JOEBOY + VIDEO.
Emerging South African superstars Major League Djz and Major Lazer share a new track, “Designer” featuring rising Nigerian vocalist and songwriter Joeboy, alongside a video today—listen and watch HERE.
“‘Designer’ is about feeling fly, rocking designer, being braggadocious, being confident in your skin and shining wherever you are,” Joeboy says. “I was in L.A. at Diplo’s Malibu mansion and ‘Designer’ is one of the songs we made. Diplo is a talented producer, and I am happy to be working with him on another track.”
The new track follows, “Koo Koo Fun” featuring Nigerian icon Tiwa Savage and DJ Maphorisa, Major Lazer’s first new music since 2021 that features further contributions from Don Jazzy and Stargate. The track was later remixed by Bianca Costa, Chloé Caillet, Francis Mercier and Nic Fanciulli.
The new tracks falls under the genre of amapiano, a South African style of house music that emerged in 2012 and is descended from the South African house genre kwaito and Afrobeats. Pioneered largely by Major League Djz, amapiano is a hybrid of deep house, jazz and lounge music characterized by synths, airy pads and wide percussive basslines and is currently topping charts in the U.K. and beyond.
The BET-nominated amapiano duo Major League Djz—twin brothers Bandile and Banele Mbere—have quickly risen to international visibility as stars of the South African dance music scene, serving as pioneers of the genre and de facto global ambassadors with hits like “Bakwa Lah” and “Dinaledi.”
Since the release of their critically acclaimed album from 2021, Outside, they have gone on to break the world record for the longest DJ set performed by a duo, performing for 75 hours for a special edition of their Balcony Mix Xperience. Last year, they performed at Coachella alongside Black Coffee and sold-out a headline show at the O2 Academy Brixton. With fans and supporters including TEMS, Burna Boy, Honey Dijon, Jorja Smith, Rema, Asake, Stefflon Don and Jayda G regularly attending their parties in South Africa, Ghana and beyond, they’re now poised to take the world by storm.
Major Lazer is the global dance trio of Diplo, Walshy Fire and Ape Drums. Named for the group’s fictional figurehead, a one-armed Jamaican Zombie War commando, Major Lazer’s mission is to free the universe with music. The band has released four acclaimed albums, 2009’s Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do, 2013’s Free The Universe, 2015’s Peace Is The Mission, featuring the Diamond-certified “Lean On” with DJ Snake and MØ—one of the most successful songs of all time—and 2020’s Music Is The Weapon, which features songs in five languages and collaborations with Nicki Minaj, J Balvin, Marcus Mumford, Khalid, Alessia Cara, Anitta, Paloma Mami, Busy Signal, BEAM, Shenseea, Nucleya and more.
