Does Emtee have the highest Replay Value in South Africa?

A couple of weeks ago Twitter was in a bit of a frenzy because of a particular Tweet from a user who goes by the name of Shaka Zulu.

This Twitter user tweeted the following saying;

There is no South African rapper with the same amount of replay value as Emtee the Hustler.

The Twitter user continued by tweeting;

10 years from now, you can play ‘Pearl Thusi’ for 20 people and all of them will sing it word for word. That is why he is the goat.

Now there is no denying that Emtee is a goat in his own right, he definitely has some hit songs and was impactful in terms of Trap music in South Africa. But it begs the question, do other South African rappers not compare to Emtee when it comes to replay value?

Well, I first think it is important to establish what constitutes replay value and from what I know, it is described as a quality of music that is worth playing more than once.

In simple terms, how often a certain artist or album is being played repeatedly and I guess the easiest way to measure how much replay value a particular artist has would be to either look at their streams or how well they chart with their music.

We cannot deny that music is subjective and when having these types of conversations it is most likely that we as individuals will try to favour the artist that we like the most due to our bias but it is important to remember that our opinion is not a fact and that is my problem with the above tweets.

No disrespect to Emtee but the above Twitter user is masking his own opinion for a fact, making claims without any way to back up what he is saying.

In regards to which South African rappers I believe would have the most replay just based on streams and placements on charts, I would have Nasty C, A-Reece, Blxckie, the late AKA, Cassper Nyovest, and K.O all above Emtee because just looking at some of the charts, they would support my claim.

Spotify listed the top South African hip-hop artists of 2022 with the most streams with Blxckie being in the first position, followed by Nasty C, then A-Reece, then K.O and AKA in fifth position.

Out of fifty songs on the above-mentioned Spotify chart, Emtee did not have a single song of his own making a placement, which begs the question, how much replay value does he really have?

Also, we currently have the top 100 South African hip hop albums on Apple Music with Blxckie making it onto the chart twice with “THE4MULA” at number 13 and “B4now” at number 41.

We also have Nasty C on the chart three times with “Strings and Bling” at number 37, the “Ivyson Army Tour” mixtape at number 50 and we have “Zulu Man with Some Power” at 97.

Next up we have Emtee with “Logan” at number 42, “Manando” at 71, and “Avery” at 76.

We also have A-Reece making it onto the chart seven different times with “Deadlines – Free P2” at number 4, we have “Today’s Tragedy, Tomorrow’s Memory” at number 19, we have “The Burning Tree” at number 23, we have “From Me to You & Only You” at number 62, we have “And I’m Only 21” at number 64, we have “Reece Effect” at number 69 and finally “heaveN caN waiT – thE narroW dooR voL.1” at number 96.

Well, the above should tell you everything you need to know, A-Reece has the longest charting hip hop album in South Africa since its release, “From Me to You & Only You”, now this should tell you how much replay value he really has.

That Twitter user said there is no South African rapper with the same amount of replay value as Emtee and you know what, he is right because there are rappers who actually have better replay value than Emtee and that is no disrespect to him.

It is apparent that Emtee’s music is still getting played repeatedly to this day because he currently has three different projects charting at the same time.

But we also have to consider the other rappers who clearly have the same replay value if not more and that is not me saying that that’s being determined by you the fans and listeners who constantly stream and listen to these rappers’ music and when it all comes down to it, the numbers don’t lie and it is clear that Nasty C, A-Reece, Blxckie, and a few others are at the top when it comes to their music having that replay value.

With that being said, you guys let me know your thoughts on this.

Do you agree with the Twitter user’s statement about Emtee despite him clearly being biased or are you on board with what I have said about the numbers determining how much replay value a particular artist has?