Unveiling Aphi Tenza: A Rising South African Star in NYC

It’s not everyday that Marcel bumps into a musician at work, let alone a musician that has over 400k Spotify streams that also happens to be killing it in New York as a South African artist, but it happened.
Aphi Tenza is a 23-year-old SA artist who started making music in 2019 when she moved to New York. She has gone on to amass over 350k followers across all social media platforms, having started her musical journey with only SoundCloud and GarageBand. Here are some of the key points she touched on during our interview with her.
Turning Negativity Into Positive Writing
When Aphi moved to New York, she joined the girl group Bebi Monsuta, which went on to release its smash hit, Julia Fox. Aphi speaks about the tragedy that inspired her verse in the song.
‘That song was actually a very personal song for me because I wrote it at a time when my sister just passed away. Writing is like therapy for me. At that time, I was supposed to write a funeral speech for my sister, but then I took a little break because it was overwhelming, and then I did something else. My friend sent me a beat, and I just wrote the part on Julia Fox where I was like, ‘When I got rich, I made sure all my cars had extra seats for my niece’, who is my sister’s daughter. So yeah, it’s like a personal song turned into a really good Hip-Hop sound. In my writing, I get really personal because, I guess, what else does one have to write about?’
The Journey Being The Destination
Some artists get so distracted and consumed by the bright lights and algorithms that they forget to enjoy the journey. Aphi digs deep into this narrative.
‘The journey is actually what makes it so that you have more to say and more to write, so you end up making better art. Me starting on SoundCloud and starting on GarageBand on my own—that's what makes an artist, their reasoning behind wanting to do this and doing it even if you don’t have the equipment or doing it even if your parents are like, be a doctor.’
Embracing Imperfections
Aphi has had to work on some of her music herself, and that used to often lead to her questioning whether the music she made was perfect or not. This is something she has been able to deal with positively over time.
Aphi says, ‘I’ve stopped being too hard on myself when it comes to doing music because I realised that although I’m doing it on my own and not in a studio, the imperfections are part of the song; it doesn’t have to be perfect. So I’ve tried to lay off being too much of a perfectionist with my work.’
Conclusion
Aphi Tenza is on her way to becoming one of SA’s finest exports in the music industry. Given her current achievements, it’s actually rather shocking that SA media hasn’t caught on, but with Sludge Underground being your number one portal to SA’s most must-see emerging creatives, we’ve got you covered. Her story is one full of gems that even you can pick up and apply to your own craft, so be sure to check out the full episode here, and check out Aphi’s music here.