Kwaito moved the nation in the 90’s and the early 2000’s saw gqom occupy the focus of the nation before amapinao came through and took over.
Now it would seem there is a new genre that is luring listeners in. It is a sub-genre or derived from the sounds of Afro-tech and they’re calling it 3 step. The more popular proponents of this new direction being developed under the umbrella of house music are Morda Bongz of Black Motion fame and the multi-talented Oscar Mbo.
Drum catches up with a DJ who is regarded as one of the pioneers of this sound.
Lesego Nkooe Junior, whom you might know as JNR SA, is from a village called Mabeskraal in Rustenburg but is based in Pretoria and the DJ /Producer explains excitedly what this new sound is all about.
“I've been making music professionally for eight years although I grew up playing musical instruments at an early age in church. Three step is actually a sound within the Afro house genre which was introduced by a fellow producer and friend Thakzin, and it is more of a bridge we needed between amapiano and Afro house.”
JNR says what makes three-step unique is the sounds used and that the sound works everywhere, “you can play it at almost every event and people will still vibe to it. The elements that define the three-step sound is the use of the kick, which is played in a beat of 3, the snare drum that emphasizes the log drum and sub bass.”
They also bolster the sound with African percussions which are usually looped, “for the groove and some melodic elements like your flutes, marimba, brass etc,” the 28-year-old elaborates.
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He first found his way to this genre or rather technique of beat making when he would rework and remix popular amapiano songs and he would move these as bootleg renditions.
“I started doing Bootlegs for popular amapiano songs in 3 step sound which actually opened doors and introduced me to both Afro house and the amapiano audience.”
JNR is a beneficiary of the popular SABC 1 talent search show 1’s and 2’s and this provided the springboard for his career back in 2017.
"I was a top 6 finalist. In 2018 I produced a song called Nathinga by Candy Tsamandebele which is part of her album that won the SAMA25 in 2019, then in 2020 after Covid-19 I was a music lecturer at Soul Candi Institute of Music in Bloemfontein.”
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The following year, 2021, he worked with veteran DJ and producer Mobi Dixon on a song called When House Was House - the title track of Mobi’s vaunted return opus.
"That featured me and Mariechan and it also won the SAMA28 in 2022. Then later that year I met Darque, a great DJ and producer who happened to be my brother and a mentor as we worked on his newly released album called More Life."
The person that inspired JNR to join or do three-step is Thakzin, “and the will of believing that I can do it too and seeing how music has been received in clubs and festivals pushes me to do more,” he says.
“It's been months now since I started making music in three-step sound though I'm not caged only to the sound itself but there's been so much growth happening.”
He believes his music has evolved over time in the sense that he can manipulate a sound to make it sound the way he wants, “and I'm able to phase in between genres. You know in life people come and go, so I've experienced a lot of disappointments which taught me to create more room for that and strongly believe in myself like my life depends on it.”
You can expect a couple of projects from JNR SA in the not-so-distant future, "There's a lot of music and collaborations I'm busy working on for the year 2024 and I've recently released an EP called D2MA Dance To My Afro which is out on all digital platforms."
