Cornelius SA’s rigid faith in God, immense natural talent as well as sharpened skills, proved to be fruitful when he and longtime friend Chicco Dagroove won the “Bridges for Music”, CTEMF 2015 Loco Dice Tour. The highly venerated DJ mix competition, takes place annually in February around various venues in South Africa and features the likes of Loco Dice, Trancemicsoul, Culoe De Song, Four Tet, DJ Shimza, Black Coffee and a multitude of other local and international acts.
Cornelius has also played alongside some of South Africa’s most promising talents such as Kat La Kat, Jazzuelle, Sean Munnick, Swizz, Da Capo, Dwson and Bruce Loko. He has also played in prominent spaces such as in ERA (Cape Town), Oppikoppi Music Festival, House22 (Pretoria), Kitchiners (Braamfontien) and Transemicsoul Sessions. Early this year he got selected to participate at the Red Bull Music Academy 2018 and has played his first international gig In Berlin, Paloma Bar, headlining the night with Pearson Sound.
In 2016, Kenny Dope from New York City signed him under his record label Dopewax. Under Dopewax Cornelius released the single “Heaven” featuring Honey Molasses. This turned out to be a huge success creating for Cornelius SA an international audience.
He’s received support from Jullian Gomes, MAQman from GOGO Music and Tortured Soul. His remix repertoire stretches from New York’s Tortured Soul “U Live 2 Far Away”, MWD & Raul Soto “Freedom House” with a touch of strictly house rhythms and his signature ruby bass line; to South Africa’s Ole “Forever” and Essential-l’s “Flowers” which was played when he was featured on 5FM’s Selective Styles.
His focus on mood has let his tunes take on deep, mind moving feel-good grooves, that can be described as dark with the signature of muffled and crunchy claps, mixtures of techno, soulful and deep/tech house infused with central African vocal humming’s and elements that will get you moving to the rhythm every time. His music is designed with the intent of longevity, hence his music is still well revered even long after the release date.
His song “Keep Your Mouth Shut” became firm favorite for purveyors of hypnotic, deep emotive sound with a mixture of soul. It was featured on major radio stations such as Metro FM on The Urban Beat hosted by Marian ‘Lartey’ Nyako and Vinny Da Vinci, 5FM’s Selective Styles hosted by Kid Fonque and lastly The Deeper Shades of House hosted by Lars Behrenroth. Earlier this year he released a single titled “Feel It Now” which saw support from mega superstar Black Coffee, Hyena from Germany, Yfm’s Just Mo, Deep House pioneer Jullian Gomes and several other biggest names in the industry.
Keep Your Mouth Shut” also created major buzz on social media and the most featured from supporting local DJs followed by from Miz-Dee from South Africa, Eider from Spain, DM Recordings’ Kitty Amor and the largest independent electronic online magazine Resident Advisor.
He has also worked on a project with Stay True Sounds and is currently working with Red Bull Studios in Cape Town for his new solo projects, which like his all his work, promises to be highly sought after.
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