Mozambique isn’t a country I report a lot on, but DJ Tarico is putting it firmly on the musical map.
He’s a super versatile producer who seems to be able to turn out hit after hit with different artists and in several musical genres.
Now he’s conquered the amapiano scene with tracks so good even the South Africans are fooled.
Already making waves across the continent with his 2020 hit Yaba Buluku, he gained global exposure the following year when Burna Boy collaborated on a remix of the song.
DJ Tarico began experimenting in music back in 2010 when a school friend taught him how to play with sounds on a computer.
He also had a friend who was a DJ so he had two people to guide him at the start, and in the beginning he was producing hip hop because that was what he listened to most.
“When I felt I was producing good, I tried to change a bit. One thing that I like is to keep growing. I don’t like to be static.”
So he changed from hip hop to Kuduro.
“Kuduro is the style of Angola. Kuduro at that time was rocking all over the place. So then I moved from Kuduro to Kizomba, that dance when people are too close!,” he laughs.
“After that I changed to Panza, our regional style here. That time I became a big producer here in Mozambique when I started producing local styles here.”
He says that Panza was invented by DJ Ardiles and Ziqo.
“They tried to mix Raga music with Marabenta. We tried to put more electronics on the traditional sounds.”
He says it was quite hard back then as they didn’t know anything about the music industry, “we were just doing it”.
He later switched again to Amapiano. “At that time amapiano was growing in Moz, so why not?”
Burna Boy heard Yaba Buluku in a club and jumped on board the track propelling to the global stage with the remix.
DJ Tarico says the track changed his life.
Mozambique
As a result he says the music industry is now changing in Mozambique, with artists becoming more aware of digital platforms on which to promote their work.
But DJ Tarico has no plans to leave Mozambique in order to enhance his career.
“From Southern Africa we don’t like to emigrate too much. It’s sweet bro!”
