Cornelius Tshepo Mashilane, better known by his

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Cornelius SA, is a South African music producer,

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

er and DJ. He creates

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

containing elements of Electronic dance,

deep house Deep house is a subgenre of house music that originated in the 1980s, initially fusing elements of Chicago house with the lush chords of 1980s jazz-funk and touches of soul music. Its origins are attributed to the early recordings of Larry Heard ( ...

, techno and

Afro house A : Emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines instead of lyrics. It has core electronic "squelch" sounds that were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experi ...

Biography

Early life

Cornelius was born in

Atteridgeville Atteridgeville is a township located to the west of Pretoria, South Africa. It is located to the east of Saulsville, to the west of West Park; to the north of Laudium and to the south of Lotus Gardens. The settlement was established in 1939, and ...

, South Africa. He grew up in Atteridgeville, before relocating to Soshanguve in Pretoria. He fell in love with

when he was in Primary School. He was taught how to DJ by his friend, first with vinyls and was later introduced to CDJs at the age of eighteen after completing his matric.

Career

In 2015, he won the Bridges for Music, CTEMF 2015 Loco Dice Tour by

Loco Dice Loco Dice (born Yassine Ben Achour on 10 August 1974) is a German DJ and electronic music producer born and based in Düsseldorf, Germany. He is best known for his work in the house and tech house genres and his residencies at Ibiza nightclubs ...

. His single "Falling Again" which was released through DHN Records got the recognition from Tim White by featuring his music productions on his mixes. His EP titled ''Ambition'' also played a role in his music career, when his single "Endless" was featured on Vadim Balaev's DJ Top10 on

Resident Advisor ''Resident Advisor'' (also known as ''RA'') is an online music magazine and community platform dedicated to showcasing electronic music, artists and events across the globe. It was established in 2001. ''RA''s editorial team provides news, musi ...

. In 2016, American record producer,

Kenny Dope Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez (born July 5, 1970), also sometimes known as K-Dope, is an American record producer and disc jockey. He is one half of the classic house music Masters at Work musical production team with Little Louie Vega; and also release ...

, signed him under his record label, Dopewax. Under Dopewax Cornelius released his single "Heaven", which featured Honey Molasses. The single created an international audience for him as he received support from musicians such as Jullian Gomes, MAQman and Tortured Soul. In 2018, he participated at the

Red Bull Music Academy The Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) is a world-traveling series of music workshops and festivals that was founded in 1998 by Red Bull GmbH. The main five-week event is held in a different city each year. The public portion of its program is a festiv ...

’s 20th Anniversary and in Berlin, where he headlined the night with music producer

Pearson Sound David Kennedy (born 1988), professionally known as Pearson Sound, is an electronic dance music producer and DJ based in London. His style is a combination of house, dubstep, UK funky, UK garage and oldschool jungle. Career Early in his career Ke ...

. In that same year he worked on a project with Stay True Sounds and released his single "Feel It" featuring Zimbabwean-born singer

Jackie Queens Jackie Queens is a Zimbabwean-born singer and songwriter. Her music is a combination of House containing elements from deep house and Soulful house. She’s also the founder of Bae Electronica, a record label she launched to release her own mus ...

, which was nominated in the 2018 Dance Music Awards South Africa for Best House Record of the Year and Best EDM Record of the Year. His single "Keep Your Mouth Shut" has been featured on major local radio stations such as

Metro FM Metro FM is a national radio station in South Africa owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation. The station broadcasts on FM Stereo as well as the DStv Bouquet Channel 801. Telephone : History The station started broadcasting in O ...

5FM 5FM is a South African FM radio station that follows a Top 40 music format and is owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), South Africa's public broadcaster. SABC announced the appointment of Mr. JD Mostert as Business Mana ...

and The Deeper Shades of House hosted by Lars Behrenroth. He has performed alongside local musicians such as Kat La Kat, Jazzuelle, Sean Munnick, Swizz, Da Capo, Dwson and Bruce Loko. He has also performed in music festivals and venues such as ERA in Cape Town, House22 in Pretoria, Kitcheners in

Braamfontein Braamfontein (English: ''blackberry spring'', or more prosaicly ''blackberry springs''; also known as Braam) is a central suburb of Johannesburg, in South Africa, seat of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and some of South Africa's major c ...

, Bushfire Festival in

Swaziland Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

Oppikoppi Oppikoppi was a music festival held in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, near the mining town of Northam. The festival started off focusing mostly on rock music, but gradually added more genres and now plays host to a complete mixed bag of ...

, Black Coffee’s Summer Residency at Shimmy Beach in Cape Town, Ryan Murgatroyd’s SWOON at Wonderland Club in Cape Town, Cape Town Electronic Music Festival and the Smoking Dragon Festival in Drakensberg. In early 2020, he got signed to

Armada Music Armada Music is a Dutch independent record label that specialises in releasing electronic dance music. The name Armada derives from the first two letters of the founders' first names: Armin van Buuren, Maykel Piron and David Lewis. Signed a ...

becoming the first black African artist to sign under the label, and only the fifth in South Africa, joining Goldfish, Goodluck, Kyle Cassim and Protoculture. Under the label he released three single tracks, "Diamonds", "Faith" and "Free Your Mind". His single "Diamonds" charted on the UK’s Music Week top10 Cool Hits and later got recognition from International electronic music artists such as Above & Beyond featured it on their Groove Therapy radio show, Eelke Kleijn's Days like Nights Radio, Jono Grant’s Anjuna Family Radio,

Chicane A chicane () is a serpentine curve in a road, added by design rather than dictated by geography. Chicanes add extra turns and are used both in motor racing and on roads and streets to slow traffic for safety. For example, one form of chicane is ...

’s Sun:Sets Show, Maxim Lany’s residency on BBC One, Shane 54’s International Departures and

’s Radio Show.

Awards and nominations

Discography

*''Ambition'' (2015) *''Boogie Woogie'' (2017) *''Studio Experiments'' (2018) *''Tell Me'' (2018) *''Feel It Now'' (2019) *''Diamonds'' (2020) *''Free You Mind'' (2020)

References

External links

* {{instagram, realcorneliussa, Cornelius SA
Cornelius SA on Discogs
Living people People from Gauteng South African house musicians South African DJs Electronic dance music musicians Electronic dance music DJs Deep house musicians Armada Music artists Year of birth missing (living people)