On Wednesday morning, Kelvin Momo became the latest African star to be followed on Instagram by Drake, the Canadian pop star who’s built a reputation of scouting fresh new talent on the social media platform.
Momo is currently riding the wave of his new album “Amukelani”, which has been topping charts on Apple Music and Spotify since its release in December.
“Thank You South Africa,” sharedMomo recently. “All Genre Top songs.”
Momo also went to Twitter to share that Drake had also sent him a DM, which read, “You my friend are from another planet. Listen to you like a religious experience.”
“Waking up to such. speechless! 🙆🏼♂️ le re nna ke etsa hanyani 😂 🫡 jokes aside Getting a DM from Drake 🥹🥹 means a lot I don’t even know what to say but am fucken grateful man 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻”
Waking up to such. speechless! 🙆🏼♂️ le re nna ke etsa hanyani 😂 🫡 jokes aside Getting a DM from Drake 🥹🥹 means a lot I don’t even know what to say but am fucken grateful man 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/7fhVdOMpSl
— Kelvin Momo (@kelvinMomo_) January 4, 2023
There have been murmurs of Drake dabbling in amapiano since the genre started to become popular across the globe in 2019.
Over the years, the “God’s Plan” hitmaker has drawn both plaudits and criticism for his knack of “jumping on the bandwagon” of new sounds and/or artists that are gaining traction around the world.
Previously, he famously co-signed WizKid by featuring on the Nigerian afrobeats star’s “Ojuelegba” remix, before capitalising on the freshness of his sound by featuring him on 2016’s “One Dance”, which shattered several records on the way to becoming the biggest single of his career.
Last year, when it was revealed that Black Coffee would be executive producing Drake’s new album, “Honestly, Nevermind”, some fans started to speculate that the Grammy Award-winning South African DJ would lead Drake into some amapiano vibes.
Instead, it was a dance music album that had some major South African house influence thanks to not just Coffee’s production, but also that of his son Esona and pop star Tresor.
@LadoSoPeng tweeted: “Drake’s new album is giving South African House. Amapiano - but more chill. Definitely the kind of album you can listen to on a summer road trip.”
Drake’s new album is giving South African House. Amapiano - but more chill. Definitely the kind of album you can listen to on a summer road trip
— 𝐋𝐀𝐃𝐎 🇨🇩🇿🇦 (@LadoSoPeng) June 17, 2022
With Drake having previously followed and expressed his adoration for amapiano DJ sensation Uncle Waffles, perhaps he’s inching closer and closer to making that big move and releasing his first amapiano song.
If there’s an amapiano producer whose sound seems a natural fit for Drake’s voice, style and delivery, it’s Momo. It might just happen.