Cassper Nyovest Interview
So if he’s not on your playlist right now then you’re not on par with the state of hip hop in SA. He made it out with Gusheshe then just slapped us with Doc Shebeleza, and honestly I still can’t get enough of Mr. Nyovest, Nyovest Nyovest! Phumakim is also hitting us hard. We had a young chat with the big achiever. Hope you learn something new about him.
YV: How did the stage name “Cassper Nyovest” come about?
Cassper Nyovest: The name Cassper came from a freestyle when I was a packback rapper, I said my name is Cassper, sorta like the friendly ghost and it explains my character cause I’m a friendly guy and I also think I’m cute. Nyovest is just a word I made up. And When I started my facebook account you had to have a surname so I used Nyovest as my surname. That’s what people started calling me ever since I started pushing my music on social media and stuff and that’s how it became one name.
YV: Who/What is your biggest inspiration?
Cassper Nyovest: A lot of hunger. I aspire to be very very wealthy. I’ve got this thing about American acts making it big in the world and I don’t know why we can’t be like that. I get inspired every time I see a pic of Kanye with a Lambo. So yeah my whole thing is these guys made it from being a normal human being to a million.
YV: So Cassper wants to make a million?
Cassper Nyovest: Not a million I mean I’ve already made a million. But I wanna be a big star around the world like an American act. The reason I’m saying American act is because they’re the biggest in the world in like influence in hip hop .
YV: What are some of the challenges you faced while trying to break into the industry?
Cassper Nyovest: The biggest challenge we’ve always had was getting our stuff played. Getting on radio and after we made a little money we started shooting our videos and getting our videos played. Just getting the recognition that we deserve. Before everyone knew us we knew that we were gonna be big before we made it. We already knew that we’re the best at what we do, the biggest challenge was just to get people to give us what we deserve, which is the airplay that we’re getting now. It was more difficult to know that you’re going to be the biggest act in the country, but nobody sees you as that, every time you come with your CD they treat you as a demo rapper or those guys who are chancing and I’m like no I have something special man.
The album we’ve all been waiting for has been released, Tsholofelo
YV: The album has sold over 10 000 copies in two weeks what do you attribute that success to?
Cassper Nyovest: Its been 3 now, 2 weeks since it dropped. Yeah man Its just a sign to say that I’m not delusional because (laughs) you can think that people are excited about you and your music until it makes it on to the shelf then its up to them whether they wanna buy it or not I cant do anything about it. Its not up to marketing anymore, to have someone to have bought into what you doing. Have someone get into a taxi or a car to go to the store, buying an album is more than the cost of the album going there . Its time as well, petrol money and sometimes there’s traffic. For someone to buy an album is so much support and I always tell people its not even to listen to it people don’t buy music to listen to it you can buy music on your phone and listen to buying an album says “yo I like what you’re doing and I wanna see it flourish” its an amazing feeling.
YV: What inspired the title of the album “Tsholofelo” ?
Cassper Nyovest: Tsholofelo is my little sisters name and it means hope so besides the story that I always tell that she gave me her lunch money to travel to joburg, me making this album I just wanted to give kids in the hood hope. Because I understand both worlds I come from the hood and I come from a really really violent background. But my mom used to live in a normal neighbourhood and I also know the suburbs and I had friends in the suburbs. I understand how both kids admire each other and they don’t know about it. Kids in the burbs really admire the humility that the kids in the townships have and they admire their character they wanna be as hard as them even though they didn’t grow there. Kids in the township aspire to have the same opportunities and to be as educated and as privileged, kids in the hood see the burb kids as softies. I know the social ills between the two relationships . When I made this album it was to give the kids in the hood hope, yo you could be whatever you like in the world and to tell the kids in the burbs to be them selves its still cool. To give them hope, that’s why we choose the title Tsholofelo just a movement to giving everybody hope. Specially kids in the hood, we don’t have role models anymore and I grew up looking up to thugs. They had the jewellery and the fliest chicks and everybody respected them and when you grow up you see that its not respect its actually fear . I wanted to give them hope and to say here is a guy who can…not really be a role model cause I also have my flaws but you know I can try and just spread positive energy.
YV: Is there a specific reason behind the date of release? Why the 31st of July?
Cassper Nyovest: No I chose that date because we were a little bit late with the production of the album already so I decided to give myself enough time to finish up.
YV: What’s your favourite track on the album and why is it your favourite?
Cassper Nyovest: I love all the songs because I spent so much time with them and the album. The song that I keep on listening to is the song called Alive with a guy called Kyle,he is an amazing vocalist. the reason why I like the song so much is because of the way it was written, it was written so well that I feel like its not even my song. Its one of those special songs, when I look at doc Shebeleza I don’t even remember how I wrote that song.
YV: Should we look forward to hearing any collaborations on the album?
Cassper Nyovest: There’s this song called Ghetto Olympics that I did with iFani and Uhuru, it will be a smash. Song of the Summer That’s the song that everyone is bumping right now that everyone is talking about right now. And just the collaboration, it’s a powerful collabo. Before hearing the song, before it hit the fans everyone was looking forward to it.
YV: How was the experience of meeting Wiz Khalifa, do you see yourself working with him?
Cassper Nyovest: It was , it was pretty much overwhelming, uh most important thing is that he is such a humble guy such a humble dude. It kind of reminded me , and it humbled me. There’s success and I’ve really haven’t done anything in the world There’s no reason to gain any sort of confidence, I look a lot the cats in the game and I see so much arrogance. Meeting wiz was like this guy is really a star, really a star around the world you know and he’s so humble he’s so cool he was just drinking gin, laughing and every time I was like yo I wanna leave and not be in his space he was like “No no its cool cuz, chill” and I’m like he’s so chilled. I know how it feels to be mobbed and that’s how I approached him , and I was like I’m a little star and I understand how it feels for everybody to be in your space. And he was chilled with everybody and not just me because he appreciates my music but with everybody when I bounced I watched him interact with everybody walking around the VIP and he was the same guy, talking to everybody. When he performed he came back to me, he gave me a shout out on stage like “S/O to Cassper”. Before he left he came to see me and said thanks for the love and we exchanged numbers, he gave me his personal line that was the craziest thing. I’d really like to work with him but I understand hes really busy. I mean sometimes he replies after a whiiile. But I’d really love to see the relationship grow into maybe a collabo or something. More than that I think that the most important thing was me gaining the understanding or more experience of having a star saying you know what you’re doing is right. I mean if hes convinced hes a star and he likes my work and he’ll share my work, I’ll also be a big a star. The same way I look at myself if you give me a stage like Kanye. The same thing happened when Kid Cudi was in the country, if these guys can appreciate my work like this it means that given the same opportunity I have the potential to make something out of it.
YV: What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you since the birth of Cassper Nyovest?
Cassper Nyovest: I met this kid when we were going to LIVE in the parking lot. He had this gadget, its a watch when you lose your phone you press this button and your phone rings and he showed me how it works and I thought yo this is so cool. And he was like “you can have it” and I’m like “what” and he gave it to me and he was like “all I wanna do is rap for you” so I said “rap!” then he rapped and when he was done I gave his watch back and he was like you can have it the he connected it to my phone and I was like thanks. The kid is like 16. I took his number just in case his mom shouts. I still have the watch.
YV: Who are your top 5 local Hip Hop artists?
Cassper Nyovest:
– Kid X is my favourite rapper.
– Number two has to be Riky Rick
– Then OkMalumKoolKat
– I really really enjoy what K.O is doing.
– And theres this kid Chad Da Don. Im really excited about him. Cant wait for people to hear him.
YV: Besides Minnie, who’s your celebrity crush?
Cassper Nyovest: Amanda Du Pont, she’s like really really gorgeous. My other crush is Boity.
YV: What’s the current status with Boity?
Casper Nyovest: We’re friends. We’re really really close friends. Like realllly reallly close friends.
YV: Who dresses Cassper?
Cassper Nyovest: I am my own stylist.
YV: Your house is burning, what are the first 5 things you’ll grab?
Cassper Nyovest: Wow, my sneakers, I’ve got a lot of them (laughs) I don’t think I’d have time to grab anything else. I’ve got a lot of sneakers.
YV: We’ve watched a lot of your performances, where do you get the energy from?
Cassper Nyovest: I was a dancer most of my life. So, ‘Ne kele le pantsula like… ‘Ne kele majaivani actually I started with pantsula. I’m bad ass at everything.
YV: When you say you good at everything, what else are you good at?
Cassper Nyovest: Producing, I produced my whole album, I write music, produce music and I think I’m a funny guy.
YV: If your name (Cassper) was an acronym what words would you use?
Cassper Nyovest: I’m bad at these things, I’m not that creative. I need time…
C for caring
A for adamant
S for sexy
Double S for Super Sexy (laughs)
P is for persistant
E entertaining
R is for yho I don’t know, amper kere Robust! I don’t even know what it means (laughs)
Respectful rather than respected.
YV: Any words of wisdom for the youth of South Africa?
Cassper Nyovest: Concentrate on more positive energy. You know this world has so many depressed and angry and insecure people. You will be attacked if you wanna be awesome. Concentrate on positive energy and giving love. If you’re caught in a situation where you’re attacked or you are mocked, just rather show love, smile, laugh about it…someone disses you laugh about it. That’s how I got here, I got this far because of peoples hearts being open to me succeeding . A lot of people wanna see me win, because I’m such a great person and I take pride in being such a humble and great person and making people smile and respecting people. That’s the only way to do it you know I think a lot of people block so many blessings by offending people and this arrogance. The more you make people open to your success they open their hearts to your success. The more you have people pray for you and the more you succeed.
YV: How can your fans reach you?
Cassper Nyovest: I’m on twitter @CassperNyovest
I’m on instagram and facebook @CassperNyovest
Those are the social networks I’m on, if you see me on a Bingo or anything like that, (laughs) that’s not me!
