Get to know Muzi

They say that a change is as good as a rest, and moving halfway across the world seems to have benefited Muzi. The 25-year-old South African producer has recently moved to Berlin and is singing the German capital’s praises. “It’s made me more confident,” he explains. “Berlin’s such a creative place that it’s really allowed me to be myself.”

Now pushing a bass-heavy sound that combines Western influences with more traditional African melodies, the producer, from the KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa, began making music by trying to mimic producers such as Timbaland. With a 5pm curfew imposed by his parents because of the dangers of being out late at night in his township, he had lots of time to work on it, too. So much so that when he performed some of the beats he’d composed on a copy of Fruity Loops at a school talent show, people doubted that the music he’d made was actually his. Then, after studying medicine while also selling beats to rappers in Durban, Muzi dropped out of college and headed to Johannesburg to focus on music a few years into his degree.