2025 video still: Emtee live at Emtee's One Man Show 2025 — 9ice Entertainment / YouTube
Emtee, born Mthembeni Ndevu in Matatiele, Eastern Cape, in 1992, grows up in Rockville, Soweto, working the township talent-show circuit before joining the African Trap Movement trio alongside Sjava and Saudi. He brands his sound African trap music: Auto-Tuned melody over heavy 808s, sung as much as rapped, its street-level detail delivered with an unhurried melancholy.
'Roll Up' (2015) wins Song of the Year at the South African Hip Hop Awards, and his debut album Avery is certified platinum, taking Best Hip Hop Album at the 2016 Metro FM Music Awards. After leaving Ambitiouz Entertainment, he founds his own label, Emtee Records, in 2019 — and the independence holds: third album Logan (2021) debuts at number one in South Africa. DIY 3, released on 31 October 2024, extends the self-made run.
“Ibandla” was already a Top 3 Apple Music hit. Then Nasty C’s reinterpretation crossed one million YouTube views. When the official remix followed, it felt less like a manufactured extension than a version listeners had already asked to hear.
The Trap Temptations is not just a nostalgia play. Ruff, Emtee, Sjava and Saudi return with a 10-track project that sounds like brotherhood, survival and South African hip-hop history learning how to breathe again.
Xowla’s “Resista” is more than a remake. It is a cultural handover, pulling L’vovo’s kwaito-house energy into a modern hip-hop frame with Tony Dayimane, Emtee, Touchline and Slim Ego.
Thabsie’s While You Wait is more than a holdover EP. It is a quiet, independent rebrand that shows South African R&B comebacks do not have to arrive as loud commercial spectacles.
Computicket lists Daliwonga among the performers for the Denim and White themed Exclusive White Spring Picnic at Willowmoore Cricket Stadium in Benoni. Tickets range from R195 to R750.
Emtee is named among the headliners announced for the Jozi Kota Festival, themed EZASE MZANSI: iDiski, running 10:00 until midnight at the Johannesburg Expo Centre in Nasrec. Tickets went on sale 3 August 2026 via Computicket BoxOffice.
Amanda Black is billed among the headliners for the Jozi edition of the Kota Festival, themed EZASE MZANSI: iDiski, running 10:00 until midnight at the Johannesburg Expo Centre in Nasrec. Tickets went on sale on 3 August 2026 through Computicket BoxOffice; headliners are still being rolled out on the festival's official channels.
A-Reece is billed among the headliners announced for the Jozi Kota Festival, themed EZASE MZANSI: iDiski, at the Johannesburg Expo Centre in Nasrec from 10:00 until midnight. Tickets went on sale 3 August 2026 through Computicket BoxOffice.
