Kwaito is a South African music genre which begun during the 1990's in Johannesburg. This type of music stands out from the rest for its easy catchy lyrics and african sounds which are sung or rapped over a slow distinctive house melody consisting of deep bass lines and percussive loop samples. The style of the people who represent this genre is was so fashionable back in the 90's when it promoted the label Loxion Kulca(figure 1) , Dickies(figure 2) and Converse All Stars sneakers(figure 3).
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People often compare the similarities between kwaito and hip hop whereas they are far different compliment each other to a point, kwaito is about living a simplified life and simplified lyrics, fashion and dancing and in hip hop it is about representing elements such as rap( rhythm and poetry), b-boying, skate boarding, grafitti and battle rap(cyphers where rappers come together and show their poetic skill against each other). Ofcourse today all these elements of both kwaito and hip hop may have crossed paths or even disappeared from the branch of a subcultures to become subcultures of their own. Today we have a music genre from the North West of South Africa named "Motswako", and this is basically a setswana version of kwaito and hip hop, which can be said to be venecular hip hop lyrics on kwaito beats or even hip hop beats, this type of style was given birth by kwaito music and is now a subculture on its own.
Links:
http://www.sahistory.org.za/performing-arts/kwaito#content-top
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui3q2g55z3A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph8_DyOnSbM
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