By summoning the Zulu sounds heard in his childhood, South African singer Muzi weaves danceable, sunny, pan-African music that takes listeners on a journey through time and space, from his native Johannesburg to a Berlin club and even outer space. Numéro met the pioneer of Zulu house, acclaimed by Stormy and Chris Martin, for the release of his fifth studio album, uMUZI in 2023.
By Violaine Schütz.
Published on 13 October 2023. Updated on 21 May 2026.
Muzi‘s name is still little known in France. But in South Africa, the DJ, singer and producer has reshaped the contours of local music in just a few years. Based in Johannesburg, he even managed to attract the attention of American and British artists. Its strength? Danceable, euphoric songs that draw on a kaleidoscope of colorful influences.
In five albums, including uMUZI (2023), Muzi has forged his own sound, Zulu House. Here, electronic, bubblegum music from South Africa — the name given to the pop and funk scene of the 80s — and maskandi (Zulu folk), kwaito (house music that emerged in Johannesburg) and isicathamiya (Zulu cappella singing style) perfectly blend together.
Muzi, the South African singer who created Zulu house
“I think it’s crucial that people know where I’m from. No matter how far I want to push my music, they have to be able to say that I’m African, that I’m Zulu,” Muzi tells us about his strong link to traditional sounds. He only discovered four years ago that house music had been invented in the early 1980s by black producers in Chicago and Detroit. A piece of information that made him feel all the more legitimate in this genre. Yet, his innovative, catchy and enjoyable melodies take us much further than the North American or African continent. They propel us directly into space.
Afrofuturism at the root of a new sound
In 2018, Muzi released Afrovision, which features the track Zulu Skywalker. The expression has since become the singer’s nickname. On Interblaktic, his fourth album released in 2021, the artist opens his opus by singing: “There seem to be a lot of black people on Mars.” This way of looking at the stars is not new. “My mother used to buy me books about the stars, aliens and galaxies when I was a kid. So I fell in love with space. The idea of otherworldly places about which humans have little information intrigues me,” Muzi explains.
The South African artist’s cosmic obsession is clearly reminiscent of the Afrofuturist movement. This postcolonial, emancipatory aesthetic current emerged in the second half of the 20th century and often portrays black men in outer space. Influenced by Sun Ra and Basquiat, the movement conceives of black beauty in relation to science fiction, technology, magic and the future. A powerful imagery that can be found as much in Rihanna‘s music as in blockbusters like Black Panther (2018). As for Muzi, the producer prefers the term ‘Afro-Nowism.’ “It means that Africans are doing incredible things nowadays, in the present moment, not that we’ll only be great in the future or in another space and time.”
Collaborations with Damon Albarn, Chris Martin and Stormzy
The musician, who started out producing electro tracks with basic software in his bedroom, is a man rooted in his time. As he speaks, he is suffering from a knee injury due to a skateboarding accident and spends a lot of time on Netflix and his PlayStation. His creativity is limitless, as he creates his own clothes, shapes his illustrations and directs some of his videos. The vinyl collector listens to ancestral African music, Daft Punk, Justice and loves the film 300 (2006). The Zulu Skywalker also draws his inspiration from what he heard in Berlin clubs, as well as from the concept of love and ego death, a spiritual loss of subjective self-identity reached by taking psychedelics. Bright and deep, his music aims at healing wounds, starting with his own.
During the pandemic, Muzi saw friends and family passing away, including his mother, a gospel and opera singer who had passed her passion down to him. The artist, who grew up in a violent township, felt isolated and depressed at the beginning of his career because he wanted to make a different kind of music. He found solace in mechanical sounds and now dreams of collaborating with rap stars like Missy Elliott, Kid Cudi, or Pharrell Williams.
The South African prodigy can already boast of having a stellar fanclub. Diplo and the late The Prodigy adore him, while Chris Martin (Coldplay), Gruff Rhys, Stormzy, Kaytranada and Damon Albarn have already collaborated with him. “It’s always funny to remember Damon Albarn trying to play the maskandi and finding it very difficult because of the intensity of the strumming of the guitar strings. Or that time Chris Martin waited for me backstage after my performance at the Afropunk festival to tell me that it was one of the best things he’d ever seen in his life,” Muzi remenbers. After listening to the brilliant albums Interblaktic and uMUZI on repeat, you may share the enthusiastic opinion of the former Mr. Gwyneth Paltrow.
uMUZI (2023) by Muzi, available now.
