Cornelius (ZA)
Cornelius Mashilane, better known in music as Cornelius SA is a self-taught DJ, Producer and Re-mixer from Soshanguve – a tight knit township in the South of Pretoria. Born into a musical family his ears were sharpened early. As a child he was intrigued by house music; this led to a deepened love affair with deejaying, production as well as honing his skills on the 12 inches of steel and CDJs in his tender teen years.
Cornelius SA’s rigid faith in God, immense natural talent as well as sharpened skills, proved to be fruitful when he 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), House22 (Pretoria), Kitchiners (Braamfontien), Bushfire Festival (Swaziland), Oppikopi Festival (Limpopo), Black Coffee’s Summer Residency at Shimmy Beach (Cape Town), Ryan Murgatroyd’s SWOON at Wonderland Club (Cape Town), Cape
Town Electronic Music Festival, Smoking Dragon Festival (Drakensburg). In 2018 he was selected to participate at the Red
Bull Music Academy 20th Anniversary in Germany 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”, Essential-l’s “Flowers” and
Belgium’s Maxim Lany “Pepita” which saw feature on Tomorrowland’s Spotify playlist.
His focus on mood has let his tunes take on deep, mind moving feel-good grooves, that can be described as deep stabs and
dives into soul – they cut edge off the electro with waves of distortion that provide for a powerful emotional counterpoint. 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 favourite 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” on prolific German record label Get Physical Music
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 plus chart features on Resident Advisor.