Have you taken a look at the South American Rap scene lately? The scene is full of talented rappers hosting their own shows and starting record labels. We take a look at one of SA’s leading Entrepreneurs and Artists in the game Cassper Nyovest.
Cassper Nyovest is a rapper and producer that gained recognition as an upcoming talent by touring with fellow SA artist rapper Hip Hop Pantsula where he shared stages with US artists such as Kid Cudi, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Talib Kweli and Wiz Khalifa. The artists first release in 2013 was ‘Gushese’ the first single from his debut album ‘Tsholofelo” which was released in 2014.
Cassper was officially recognised and in the game, however it wasn’t until his second single Doc Shebeleza that he gained mass exposure with the track peaking at number 4 on South Africa’s official music chart.
In 2014 His debut album, Tsholofelo, was released on 18 July 2014, it was number 1 on the iTunes South African albums chart for 2 consecutive months. By October 2014, Nyovest was ranked number 1 on “The Hottest MC in Africa” list by MTV Base and was also ranked number 2 on MTV Base’s “SA’s Hottest MC” list.
‘Tsholofelo’ was released on his own imprint ‘Family Tree Records’. The SA entrepreneur has scooped up artists from across the country and from as far afield as Malawi to build a nationally known label which has seen female Artist Nadia Nakai put out her debut album ‘Bragga’ this year and, Malawian Producer Gemini Major join the family.
Not everything has been plain sailing for the CEO of Family Tree Records as he has been in rap beef with fellow SA artists AKA and later releasing a controversial diss track aimed at DJ Vigilante, AKA and K.O.
As well as direct beef with artists Cassper was involved in controversy more recently after being accused of stealing Kanye West’s ‘Floating Stage’ idea but after the SA artist uploaded a picture of himself performing on a floating stage a full year before the US rappers performance  the rumours subsided. Cassper has been using creativity and entrepreneurship to conquer the Rap game and his work ethic coupled with his lyrical talent has proved to be just what his audience and the game itself needed.
Cassper shows an air of confidence in his Music that has kept him on a successful path being rewarded for his hard work with awards from Channel O music awards, South African Music Awards SA Hiphop Awards and MTV Africa Music Awards. The SA lyricist doesn’t look like he’s going to stop working anytime soon, especially considering he’s had no less than 10 nominations including Best Album and Best Male for the upcoming South Africa Hip-Hop Awards 2016.
The quality of the Music coming from South Africa and teh confidence of artists such as Cassper Nyovest makes it an exciting time for the upcoming industry and record labels like Family Tree popping up don’t be surprised to see and hear more from our cultural counterparts in terms of collabs, hit tracks and maybe more controversy.
