Social Media Continues to Rewrite The Rules of Music Discovery

When Drake released Iceman in May, one third of a surprise triple-album drop, the album's discovery story was written, in part, in Johannesburg. A fan lifted a clip of DJ Maphorisa mid-set, bobbing and mock-wiping sweat from his forehead with a towel while vibing to his set at a gig, and swapped the audio for "Shabang."

Within days, the towel wipe had become the Shabang dance, the song's de facto choreography across TikTok; and Maphorisa, who has no credit anywhere on the track, its unofficial digital billboard. Asked what his song of the summer was, American rapper Offset answered by singing "Shabang" and performing his own impression of the swag — a clip Maphorisa reposted and folded into promo for his Papta merch line with Kabza De Small.

The clip had already lived a separate digital life. A month earlier, it circulated as the meme introducing the next release from Pretoria rap outfit The NorthMob’s "highway, dimas," which they were promoting concurrently with "maatla, thata" that features LaCabra of the Qwellers crew — and with "camp, chair," the song that put a spark into a year that had barely begun when it dropped in January.

"camp, chair" is where they beta-tested the blueprint: strong sonic and visual hooks, and an audience that engages every post through likes, reposts, and comments. The song's journey began with a nondescript image — a black camp chair against a white background — posted towards the end of December 2025. Then, on January 4th, a monochrome visual featuring all four members announced a snippet. The wildfire was engulfing enough to reach Focalistic, who offered to get on the remix.

"Visual promotion works better for us," says group member Orieblxckmaestro. "It gets people's attention, and works better than posting links to songs. People believe what they see. The strategy allows us to lure people into the product that we are selling. It's worked well for the past five months. Every track that we release comes with a reel. People want to see what they're dealing with."

Alongside him are singer and producer MajorIcey, and rappers Trophy and Carlow Picasso.

The immediacy of online feedback — comment sections, response videos — lets artists deliver what their audience orders, check in on how the experience is going, and hold their hand along the way, whether toward more of the same or something new. Major labels, while still influential, exclude a vast base of artists, who must become salespeople in marketing-guru hats on top of making magic in the studio.

TikTok and Luminate's Music Impact Report, analyzing 2024 chart activity, found that 84 percent of songs entering the Billboard Global 200 had gone viral on TikTok before charting; only 4 percent of chart entries had no TikTok moment at all. The platform is a leading indicator, the place where the hit is incubated. The same report found that artists whose TikTok engagement correlates with streaming see roughly 11 percent week-over-week streaming growth against 3 percent for everyone else, and that the app's Add to Music App feature — a direct bridge from short-form video to streaming libraries — has generated billions of track saves since its 2024 launch.

"Most of the time, we finance the filming. Fortunately, with the 'camp, chair' one, Focalistic helped us out with the video — including this new one with Young Stunna," says Trophy of “sjepa,” their forthcoming release featuring the amapiano star, which he teased on Facebook on July 18: "NORTHMOB x YOUNG STUNNA when do you want it." 

A week earlier, Young Stunna posted a video to his 1.5 million-follower Instagram account rapping along to his verse with scenes from various corners of his mansion. Close to 48,000 people have liked the post as of writing, a perfect example of how bigger artists can lend their audience to smaller upstarts. It was Young Stunna's "Adiwele" that carried Uncle Waffles to virality in 2021, sparking a debate about who was riding whose shine. Now he deploys his platform deliberately, on negotiated terms, to make someone else's record move. The symmetry is stark. 

Hailing from GaRankuwa in the north-west of Pretoria, the NorthMob started its life as a record label that then turned into a distribution structure for the members’ songs. “How the public perceives it now, it’s a movement. It’s a crew of individuals doing whatever the fuck we wanna do. Holistically, it’s an umbrella for a lot of things, from clothing to music and more,” says Trophy. 

Their efforts are paying off. “camp, chair” and “maatla, thata” have individually amassed a million streams across platforms, which has helped raise their profile. This has enabled them to pull big-name features. In addition to Young Stunna and Focalistic, they’ve teased studio sessions with Maglera Doe Boy and Marcus Harvey. With an album due out in August, the story is still getting written.