DBN Gogo

South African DJ-turned-recording artist Mandisa Radebe specializes in the moody, laid-back beats and spacious, minimalist production style of amapiano. This subgenre of deep house emerged locally in the mid-2010s and gained global attention early the following decade, with Radebe — under her DBN Gogo alias — being one of its strongest proponents.
She was born in Durban — a city on the Eastern coast — but was raised between Paris, France and South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria. Her father, Jeff Radebe, was a government minister, while her stepmother, Bridgette Radebe, was one of the first black African women to become a mine owner. Their daughter sang in school choirs, also learning to play the piano and recorder. While in Paris, touring South African stars such as Miriam Makeba would often visit her family, and once back in Pretoria, Radebe immersed herself in rekere, bacardi, broken beat, and kwaito, the styles that would ultimately inform amapiano. During her law studies at the University of Pretoria, she came to the conclusion that she could do a better job than the guest DJs who made regular appearances on campus. Throughout 2017, Radebe’s friend DJ Venom, allowed her to practice at Stones in Melville during hours of downtime before the venue opened. She began to use the moniker DBN Gogo and, by the end of 2019, DJ work became her primary source of income. Prestigious appearances at events such as Homecoming Africa, Ultra, Oppikoppi, and Afropunk laid the path for her to work in the studio with newfound contemporaries.
A pulsing, August 2020 collaborative EP with Dinho, Thokoza Café, helped her set out her stall. However, the cleverly produced “Khuza Gogo” — an inventive single issued in March 2021 alongside Blaqnick and MasterBlaq — became DBN Gogo’s breakthrough solo single, reaching platinum status just over a year after its release. Its follow-up, “Possible” — with Dinho and Musa Keys — was another big hit that July, a month in which she also added the Break Through EP to her catalog, a record created with fellow DJ and producer Unlimited Soul. Such was the interest in amapiano abroad, DBN Gogo toured U.K. clubs later that year to sold-out crowds, and January brought “Dakiwe” which became a huge viral hit on social media.
2022 panned out as one of DBN Gogo’s busiest years. February marked the release of “Bambelela,” a debut single on Zikode Records, her own newly minted label set up with the backing of Universal Music. Later that month, she curated a nine-day event — Boiler Room x Ballantine’s, in Johannesburg — with a key focus on promoting diversity and inclusivity in music. March’s funk-, jazz-, and dub-inspired “Bells” — released in conjunction with TNK Musiq and DJ Stopper — became her next big hit ahead of a significant DJ engagement at Coachella in California. On her return, Clout Africa named DBN Gogo DJ of the year. Further singles ensued with the likes of Stixx, Yumbs, and Mellow & Sleazy before her debut solo album, Whats Real, in November, a lengthy, versatile set. Her profile was given a further boost that month with the inclusion of “Love & Loyalty (Believe)” on the soundtrack to Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Following “Rough Dance” — a brooding January 2023 single on Zikode — DBN Gogo spent the early part of that year lending production skills to the work of emerging contemporaries on labels such as Rethabile Setwaba, Visionary Agency, and Ndlovukazi Entertainment. ~ James Wilkinson