DJ Spoko was born Marvin Ramalepe, raised in the rural town of Tzaneen in northern South Africa, where as a young boy he sang in church. At 13 he started putting his voice to tape, making rudimentary recordings on his computer. Around the same time Spoko was absorbing the Afro-house sounds on South African TV, listening to kwaito, and being blown away by DJ Mujava's "Township Funk." Bacardi House had been fermenting for a decade. For three years in the early 2000s, DJ Spoko traveled to and from the city of Pretoria for his high school education. Many nights the teenager waited on the platform for the last train home. On one side of the tracks was Menlyn Shopping Center; on the other was the hood. Spoko made beats at an Internet café until i...