Shimza New York Headline Debut

One of South Africa’s shining stars, Shimza will stop in Brooklyn for a fiery set at Quantum! The Afrotech DJ and producer, née Ashley Raphala, started spinning at age 15 and quickly rose through the ranks of the global scene. Dubbed the “Effect Master” and “Vinyl Assassin,” Shimza was signed quickly to Black Coffee’s Soulistic Music alongside artists like Culoe De Song. His full-length album Shimuzic and singles “African Woman” and “Akulalwa” cemented his place as one of South Africa’s leading house music producers.

With his signature Afrotech sound, Shimza gets the crowd grooving from London and Paris to Berlin and Amsterdam, Manchester, Sicily, and more. He has released productions such as “Destino” on Djoon Experience, an EP for Luciano’s beloved Cadenza Music. After signing with an agency in 2018, Shimza hit the jackpot and headlined a residency at Privilege Ibiza. More recently, he was entrusted by De Mthuda, Njelic, Kwiish SA, and Malumnator to remix their single “LiYoshona,” one of South Africa’s biggest amapiano tracks.

In 2020, Shimza launched his record label KYUNE and announced its arrival with a sold-out debut in London. With the goal of exporting South African Afrotech to the world, his mission quickly proved successful.

“What excites me is knowing where the music can take you,” says Shimza. “Music is like a CV: you put it out there and hope that people that listen to it can literally see themselves working with your brand. Moving forward, I would like to have collaborations with people that would open different doors to our journey and can expose us to different markets so that we not only make music for types of people or certain territories, but the music should be able to travel all around the world.”

Gray Area is honored to bring international artists like Shimza to New York City under our Debut event series. Learn about our vision for Debut here.