JAZZWRLD and Thukuthela Made 3-Step the Sound of Now

Few hitmakers can claim to have owned the sound of 2025 the way JAZZWRLD did. Born Kamohelo Monese in Lesotho, the producer spent the year alongside vocalist Thukuthela dishing out banger after banger, their fingerprints on most of the dance records that defined the South African charts. Their sonic identity moved in lockstep with Afro-house and 3-Step's global ascent, so much so that by the year's end, five of their songs had reached number one across Southern Africa: Ciza's record-smashing "Isaka (6 am)," "Vuka" with Oscar Mbo, and "Bengicela" and "Uzizwa Kanjan" with MaWhoo and GL_Ceejay. Several more records landed in the top 10.

That run has kept them booked and busy, including a stop at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival in March 2026, much to the chagrin of jazz purists, who watched two Afro-house hitmakers share the bill with the likes of Abdullah Ibrahim and Nduduzo Makhathini.

On the day we speak, JAZZWRLD is on the road with his manager, Neo Makate, while Thukuthela and GL_Ceejay dial in from their respective locations. His path from Lesotho to Carletonville traces a well-worn route for Basotho families before him. The town sits within the Far West Rand, the deep-shaft heart of the Witwatersrand gold belt, and for more than a century, its mine hostels and compounds have been among the largest absorbers of Basotho migrant labor in Southern Africa. It was among those families, the ones that crossed the border in search of work that never quite repaid the body, that JAZZWRLD spent his formative years and first felt his way toward music.

He is, in effect, the latest entrant in a long lineage of Basotho musicians who migrated in search of a better, more supportive structure: Sankomota, the Afro-rock pioneers whose self-titled 1983 debut, recorded using a Shifty Records mobile studio parked outside Radio Lesotho in Maseru, became the first album ever recorded in the the country; the late Tšepo Tšhola, whose voice from his Sankomota years through his solo career gave the Basotho diaspora one of its most recognisable signatures; and a younger generation of mavericks like Morena Leraba, Leomile and Mahlanya, who blur the borders of Famo, hip-hop and contemporary pop in ways that refuse the colonial separations of national catalogues.

He came into the game as Jazzworx. A shift in focus toward global aspirations led to the rebrand as JAZZWRLD, with a broader outlook. But the 'jazz' isn't incidental. "I grew up listening to jazz, and would incorporate that sound into my productions when I was still coming up. I've always been into soulful sounds, and it's what I'm able to play around with," says the producer.

"I liked the way he produces, how he designs his sounds. Everything made sense when we met; there was a connection there that made it easy for me to do songs with him," says Thukuthela, who hails from Daveyton, established in 1952 to absorb Black labor into the gold mines and industries lining the eastern Witwatersrand. The duo's geography, in effect, traces the full length of South Africa's gold reef: JAZZWRLD's Carletonville at the western end, Thukuthela's Daveyton at the eastern. Daveyton has also produced an Amapiano vocal lineage in its own right, from Gaba Cannal to Young Stunna and Scotts Maphuma.

Thukuthela adds, "Funniest thing, I never knew any of the East Rand guys. Our manager was the one who introduced me to many of them. All the guys in my hood just saw me coming out, and not a lot of people knew that I'm from Daveyton."

GL_Ceejay comes from an Amapiano background and says he fell into the 3-Step/Afro-house space through encouragement from the duo and their manager. "They just told me to do my thing on the song," he says. "We did “Uzizwa Kanjan,” which was our first song together. I fell in love with the genre from then on; it was something different for me, something new. We immediately developed a brotherly working relationship."

Trauma, Tenacity, and the Threat of AI

JAZZWRLD has collaborated with a range of vocalists, from Babalwa M to Thatohatsi, Benny Maverick, and Monique Bingham, all distinctive artists in their own right. For him, it's about how an artist will blend with his sound. "I also look at their work ethic, that's very important to me," he adds. "A track like 'Uzizwa Kanjan' started with me playing the beat for Thukuthela, who then laced the chorus. There were no verses for a while. We played it for our manager, who suggested we bring GL_Ceejay and MaWhoo."

A home invasion in August 2025 nearly derailed their breakout year. Around midnight, armed men stormed JAZZWRLD's home in Klippoortjie, Germiston, holding him and GL_Ceejay at gunpoint. The intruders took the equipment, the hard drives containing unreleased tracks, clothes, sneakers, and jewelry, and forced the two men into a vehicle. They were later found in an abandoned house with minor head injuries, and had to face the question of whether to absorb the loss and keep going, or call it quits.

"It was stressful, gave us issues, but we were able to fix it because we know where we want to be. We had to get new equipment and start everything from scratch," says JAZZWRLD, while GL_Ceejay adds, "The trauma was there. We needed to get back up. Shout out to our management who kept encouraging us, telling us that the phase wasn't gonna last, and that it's gonna get better tomorrow."

The conversation closes on AI's infiltration of the Afro-house ecosystem they inhabit, the subject every musician in 2026 is thinking actively about. "I haven't had the time to tap into it, because I still believe that I can do great work. There are people for whom it's beneficial, but it'll limit me in what I do," says JAZZWRLD. Thukuthela agrees: "It can do interesting things, make some things easy and simple, but it's ultimately limiting," while GL_Ceejay has the last word: "I feel that every song needs a human touch. I have listened to some AI-generated songs, but we're good. Each to their own."