Afrotainment
Durban-based South African record label founded in 2007 by DJ Tira, known for launching gqom and kwaito acts including Big Nuz and Distruction Boyz.
- Based in
- Durban, South Africa
- Founded
- 2007
- Founder
- DJ Tira (Mthokozisi Khathi)
- Website
- afrotainment.co.za
Afrotainment is a South African record label and recording studio based in Durban, founded in 2007 by DJ and producer DJ Tira (Mthokozisi Khathi). It became one of the primary homes for gqom and kwaito music in KwaZulu-Natal, signing kwaito group Big Nuz in its first year and later gqom act Distruction Boyz, whose 2017 single “Omunye” helped push the genre into the South African mainstream.
The label is independent and founder-owned; DJ Tira has run Afrotainment alongside his own recording and DJing career. Artists including Dladla Mshunqisi and the Qwabe Twins spent years on the label before launching their own imprints, Umshunqo Records and Rhythm House Records respectively. In September 2026, around his 50th birthday, DJ Tira said he had stopped signing new artists, saying Afrotainment would now focus primarily on his own output.
Afrotainment’s origins trace back to a licensing arrangement with Kalawa Jazmee Records, which put out early DJ Tira material before he built his own label and studio in Morningside, Durban.
