Few artists better illustrate the connection between South African amapiano and American deep house than Felo Le Tee, a.k.a. Tsholofelo Mokhine. Born and raised in the South African town of Siyabuswa, Le Tee taught himself to DJ and then, in the early 2010s, got his start as a producer making moody, slow-burning house tracks driven by rolling percussion and swirling synths. Many of his early releases came out on American labels like Open Bar Music and Nylon Trax, making Le Tee the rare Afro-house artist to cross over stateside. But following his move to Pretoria toward the end of the decade, Le Tee’s sound began to open up to new influences. On releases like 2018’s Elijah, he rounded out linear pulses with syncopated log drums, and fleshed out his once muted chords with brighter, more cutting synth sounds and intricate call-and-response vocals. Marrying house music’s heads-down groove with amapiano’s emotional range, Le Tee’s 2021 album Paradise offers the best of both worlds.