BY PHUMZILE NDLOVU
MBABANE- Local artist Amari has dropped his latest Hip Hop single, titled Stainless.
Born Lindelani Simelane, is an artist and producer from the kingdom of Eswatini. The name “Amarii” stems from the Latin word “Amare,” a translation of his second name, Thando,” which means love. He has performed on some of the biggest stages in the kingdom, like Pop Sunday, Uncle Waffles’s Dragon’s Den show, Nasty C and Cassper Nyovest’s African Thrones tour, which was held at Solanis Shisanyama, DTTV’s Represent,” and House on Fire, to name a few.
When reached for comment, the artist shared with this publication that he produced and wrote the entire record. He said, “The inspiration for this song was just my aspirations and the fact that I believe we must all strive to look good, dress well, and smell good. Even if you can’t necessarily afford designer clothes and all, there’s always a way to stay fresh and look good. Even local clothing should be considered cool.”
The visuals of the latest project were shot by Silver Spoon Pictures and directed and edited by Aphiwe Mabuza. He went on to say, “After this project, we begin the New Year with more singles, and we’ll be keeping everybody updated via my social media accounts.”
Amari shared with this publication that his favourite artists globally are Madonna and D. Savage.
He further gave advice to young and aspiring artists. “My advice to anyone who wants to venture into music is to practice and always be willing to learn; learning doesn’t stop. There’s always something you don’t know. I say this because, in the real world, there are tonnes of competition for an audience. You will need to be in tip-top shape to take the world on. It’s just like sports,” shared the artist.
Amarii’s music is a balanced combination of melodic and colourful Hip Hop to heartfelt RnB and TrapSoun. His music easily resonates with both young and old because he shares his personal experiences involving adolescent age, life as a teenager, school life, the ups and downs of relationships and friendships, mental health, and manoeuvring through the music industry through fresh sound and his unique melodic raps, flows, catchy lyrics, and immaculate instrumentals.
Being raised in a musical environment, he fell in love with the art form and performed in primary school, where the pupils were required to be a part of the school choir. He was introduced to the FL Studio software for music production at the age of nine, and at a later stage, he began taking piano and drum lessons at the school.
In 2015, Amarii released his first solo single, ‘Still Grinding’, under his previous stage name, Lindex, which accumulated over 45,000 downloads on Datafilehost. In 2016, he dedicated his time to working on music and informally released a seven-track project titled “Contra V” under the stage name “Amarii.” This body of work then began to grow among the youth in Eswatinis solely through CD sales, SoundCloud, and social media. Fast forward to 2018, and he released his popular singles titled ‘Gucci Bandana’ and ‘BB’, In 2020, Amarii teamed up with his peers to open a studio in Eswatini called the 808 Cave. With this space came the birth of new sounds, such as his first official Extended Playlist (EP), Oxytocin.
This influenced him to release all his previous work from the year 2019 on a throwaway project titled “Throwaways From The Other Side,” which symbolised a change in his music and life as a whole.
On September 17, 2021, Oxytocin, Amarii’s first official EP, was released, and it received great feedback from the public. Many would positively mention that it has a different sound and approach from previous releases. This EP then made him a five-time MTN SWAMA award nominee in 2021, soon after the release of the music video for the introductory song on the project Oxy, which is currently available on Youtube.
