Online Reporter
“My first hundred thousand, I didn’t know what to do with it, I locked myself in my room in disbelief,” Young Stunna chuckles, reflecting on the first few months of his meteoric rise to fame.
“I was like, ‘This is my first R100k, what am I going to do about it?’ I went crazy. I made my first million in my first year, it was crazy.”
This was three years ago, after he’d been called to the house of amapiano pioneer Kabza De Small. In 2021, while he was bubbling under as a hip-hop artist, Young Stunna found his sound in Amapiano instead. Some two weeks after his meeting his hero and hitting it off in studio, they created the magical singles Camagu and Adiwele.
“I spent money recklessly and I learnt to save. I’m saving a lot now,” the 27-year-old says when I ask him about the biggest lesson he’s learnt in the past three years.
“It’s been crazy, I haven’t been able to let it all sink in.
“Every week there is something new and I’m always on the road. There is less time with family and friends.
“I spend most of my time by myself. I have just been learning. Information goes a long way and it depends on with whom you associate yourself.
“Musically, I’m growing and the money is getting bigger.”
Not everything that came out of the Covid-19 pandemic was bad — Young Stunna is that anomaly. During lockdown, viral stardom and social-media success came calling. He hit half a million followers on Instagram in just five months and is now sitting on 1.4 million followers.
“My family gave me 2020 as my gap year after matric to try music,” he says.
“I got distinctions and good grades when I matriculated in 2019. I could get into any university and my family was going to pay for it, but I didn’t want it.
“So, I ran away from home for six months in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic.
“I lived with my producer and finished my hip-hop project. I just wanted to explore and he introduced me to amapiano.” — Sowetan.
