Ashanthi Kicks Back

She has transitioned from the young hip-hop icon we’ve all grown to love into a young adult contemporary artist, empowering women with her sound. Armed with her phenomenal voice, Ashanthi’s letting her passion be her guiding force.

- Shihaam Hassanali

It’s 2 PM and we’ve just wrapped up Ashanthi’s cover shoot. With an early af start, I’m amazed by her seemingly boundless energy. As a performer, Ashanthi is no stranger to long days even while running on little to no sleep. Today, she put this down to her rigorous workout routine. Over the past few months, Ashanthi has been working on herself, reinventing how she feels, looks and sounds.

“I took a break because I felt at one point after hip-hop died, I lost my sound,” she reflects. “The transition into this digital phase was challenging and, at the time, I didn’t feel authentic so I stopped making music for a while.” The question on people’s lips was why was Ashanthi silent for some time? But, all the while she was digging deep, restructuring her sound. “In 2018, I started making music again. I also started feeling very strongly about certain social causes, so I’m channelling it into new music,” she shares.