Prince Kaybee Reimagines Karmacoda’s ‘Time’ Into Afro House Gold

When Prince Kaybee steps into a remix, he recalibrates its emotional temperature for the dancefloor. His 2026 reimagining of Karmacoda’s ‘Time’, released via Sola Musa Music, is a masterclass in restraint meeting propulsion, a reminder of why he remains one of Afro House’s most influential architects.

For context, Kaybee’s trajectory from winning the South African DJ competition 1’s and 2’s in 2015 to becoming a platinum-selling force with crossover anthems like ‘Banomoya’ and ‘Uwrongo’ (the latter landing on TIME’s Best Songs of 2020 list) has been defined by instinct as much as impact. His productions have always balanced accessibility with spiritual depth, club-ready but emotionally coded. That duality is exactly what makes him such a compelling fit for Karmacoda’s introspective original.

The San Francisco trio, Karmacoda, operate in a far more downtempo universe. Known for weaving trip-hop atmospherics with alt-R&B sensuality, their 2022 album Lessons In Time housed ‘Time’ as a slow-burning meditation on regret and self-reflection. In its original form, the track floats on soft piano chords, subtle autotuned vocals, and an almost weightless percussive shuffle. It’s inward-looking, intimate, and quietly cinematic.

Kaybee doesn’t bulldoze that mood, he translates it.

His remix builds around a steady Afro House pulse that feels organic rather than imposed. The low-end is warm and grounding, giving the track a spine without overpowering Jessica Ford’s ethereal vocal textures. Shakers tick in the background like a metronome for memory, while luminous piano arpeggios stretch outward, adding a sense of lift that transforms introspection into motion. Where the original lingered in melancholy, the remix introduces release.

Fans of Sun-El Musician, Zakes Bantwini, and Black Coffee will recognise the balance, that distinctly South African ability to make vulnerability groove. It’s not about dramatic drops or peak-time theatrics. Instead, Kaybee leans into tonal storytelling. The rhythm is super-charged yet measured, designed for sunset sets as much as late-night floors.

Perhaps the most Magnetic Magazine-worthy detail is Kaybee’s own creative lens.

“When I make music I see color, so the vocals on the original remind me of blue and I usually associate blue with a mild cold or a subtle fresh breeze. So before I did the remix I needed to find its color that's how it started.”

What emerges is a cross-continental dialogue: San Francisco soul refracted through Johannesburg rhythm science. ‘Time’ doesn’t lose its introspective core, it simply finds a new body to move in. And in the process, Prince Kaybee once again proves that Afro House isn’t just a genre, it’s a language of emotional translation.

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