Scholarship offered for future music producer

DJ Nathi Maphumulo “Black Coffee” expressed his joy at being able to offer a scholarship to pave the way for a future music producer.

“It was such a blessing to have this collaboration with Bridges for Music,” he said. “It started off with small workshops, but now we are offering a scholarship.”

“Education is important in music,” he said. “Everything in our country is new; democracy and fame for us black people is relatively new. Being able to be educated about the field you are in helps a lot, even though you also learn a lot on the streets.”

Black Coffee studied Music Production at the then Natal Technikon (now known as Durban University of Technology). He lost the use of his left arm after he was run over by a vehicle at the age of 13. He said he had not publicly spoken about his own disability until late in his career.

“The last thing I wanted was to use my disability as a marketing strategy. I wanted people to get to know me first for my work and talent. I decided to speak openly about it after the release of my third album in 2009 as I felt I was ready to talk about it and start my foundation.”

Cape Town DJ Deon Daniels, “DJ Ready D”, was also on the panel. He too recently partnered with SAE to offer a scholarship in his name.

Ready D spoke passionately about what it meant for him to be able to offer a scholarship to upcoming artists. “I couldn’t believe that I was attaching my name to a scholarship when I didn’t even make it through matric. I was blown away when I got to the SAE as it had all the opportunities I would have loved to have when I was growing up, but now I can give that chance to other youngsters.”

Masixole Mbanga from Langa who will be studying under the Ready D scholarship said, “I have never won anything in my life. For me to win a scholarship to fulfil my dreams is even bigger than winning the lotto. My essay submission didn’t have good grammar and I even used my home language in some parts. Yet SAE still gave me the opportunity.”

The Black Coffee scholarship offers R65,000 for a student to get a higher certificate in Music Production at SAE. For more information about the scholarship and to apply you can visit their website