Uncle Waffles

Zwane was born and raised in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland).[3] She didn't know her parents and had been brought up by her grandma through her childhood years, until she reconciled with her mother as a teenager with whom she had a strained relationship thereafter.[9] Zwane grew up listening to South African house and kwaito music from artists such as Black Coffee, Lebo Mathosa and DJ Kent.[6] Before her success as a DJ, Zwane used to be a television presenter on Studio1 on Eswatini TV, but was replaced in January 2022 after parting from the show.[1][10] It was here that she first was introduced to DJ'ing by a jockey who frequently visited the office, as there was a fifteen-year old set of DJ decks there.[6] She then emigrated to South Africa in order to attend university.[3]

Uncle Waffles learned how to DJ in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdowns,[11][12] and claims to have practiced for eight hours each day.[6] She signed with South African creative agency KreativeKornerr, who managed to book gigs for her in the country's "heavily saturated" music industry.[6] After filling in for a withdrawn DJ at the Zone 6 nightclub in Soweto in October 2021, she gained prominence after a video of her dancing to the song "Adiwele" by Young Stunna during her set went viral.[6][13][1] Amid the success of the video, Canadian rapper Drake started following Uncle Waffles's Instagram account,[14] and would begin openly endorsing her on the platform.[15] Uncle Waffles soon ventured into music production,[16] and released her debut single "Tanzania" in March 2022 in anticipation of her debut extended play (EP), Red Dragon, which was released later that month.[17] The single, which had reportedly taken her three months to perfect,[6] was ranked by Rolling Stone as the eighth best afropop song of 2022, with critics describing her as "a global ambassador for amapiano".[5] In April 2022, Uncle Waffles embarked on her first-ever tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland.[18][19] The tour was closely interlinked with a series of shows organized by Piano People, which she headlined alongside DJ Maphorisa and Focalistic, and is deemed the first all-star amapiano tour in the region.[1]

Uncle Waffles released her debut music video for the track "Tanzania" in September 2022.[20] In that same month, Uncle Waffles announced that she would be hosting a residency on BBC Radio 1.[21][22] She was the only DJ that performed at the 2022 Global Citizen Festival in Accra.[11][23] She partnered with KFC South Africa to launch an exclusive "Uncle Waffles burger" which was made available for purchase in local branches in December 2022.[24] She then embarked on a concert tour of the United States,[25] and then Australia.[4] British publication Mixmag hailed Uncle Waffles as one of the top breakthrough DJs of the year 2022 worldwide.[26] Streaming platform Audiomack also hailed her as an "#UpNow" artist in March 2023.[27] Uncle Waffles' second EP, Asylum, was released in March 2023 and featured the track "Yahyuppiyah",[28] which had been released as the first single from the project.[29] The EP was certified gold by the Recording Industry of South Africa (RISA) within one week of its release.[30] In April 2023, she became the first amapiano musician to ever perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.[6][31] Her song "Tanzania" was sampled by American singer Beyoncé in a dance break on the Renaissance World Tour setlist, to which Uncle Waffles reacted with the statement "I'm crying, wow," on Instagram.[32] She will also perform at the Afro Nation Festival in both Miami and Portugal in June 2023.[33][34]