Cassper Nyovest revealed that he got the name ‘Cassper’ came from the cartoon, ‘Casper the Friendly Ghost’. Stating it was due to his friendly character. As according to him, rappers are known to be arrogant and uptight. He went further to explain that Nyovest is just a word he made up. Stating that growing up, he was a big fan of Pharrell Williams. Pharrellnkn his records says ‘yezzir’ so, Cassper decided to put a South African accent on it and Nyovest was born.
He said he became known as Cassper Nyovest as that was his Facebook name.
Refiloe Maele Phoolo is professionally known as Cassper Nyovest. He is a South African rapper, songwriter, entrepreneur and record producer. He was born 16th December, 1990 and raised in Mahikeng, North West and is regarded as one of the most successful artist in South Africa. In 2014, he established his own record label, Family Tree Records. Nyovest rose to fame with the release of his debut studio album, Tsholofelo (2014) which produced the successful singles “Gusheshe” and “Doc Shebeleza”.
He attended the Sol Plaatjie Secondary School where he was an athlete and partook in various sports. Nyovest started rapping at the age of 12. In 2006, he failed his Grade 10 exams which led him moving to his grandmother’s house in Potchefstroom. Therefore, in 2007, he decided to drop out of high school at the age of 16.
In 2008, Nyovest relocated to Johannesburg to pursue a career in music as a rapper and producer, after telling his parents he would rather chase his dream, which he believed would work out, rather than playing it safe and regretting it his whole life.
With his success of selling out tickets for his concert, Fill Up The Dome (2015) which was held at Ticketpro Dome in Johannesburg. The success of the event pursued Nyovest with the affix “Fill Up” to instigate more concerts in different stadiums annually, including Orlando Stadium (2016) and FNB Stadium (2017), also both in Johannesburg, Moses Mabhida Stadium (2018) in Durban, and Royal Bafokeng Stadium (2019) in North West.
Nyovest released his eponymous studio album, Refiloe, released on 31 October 2015, at his Fill Up The Dome concert. The album collaborates with several artists including The Game, DJ Drama, Stonebwoy and Casey Veggies. He followed his success with his critically acclaimed third album Thuto (2018) and his kwaito-focused fourth studio album, Sweet and Short (2019 ).
Thuto was released on 5 May 2017. It was certified gold by RiSA on the day of its release and was then certified platinum within the following weeks. Nyovest announced his third “Fill Up” event, which was held on 17 November 2017, at the 94,736 capacity stadium, FNB Stadium, Johannesburg.
In 2018, Nyovest released his fourth album Sweet and Short. The album was certified platinum on its day of release. Nyovest’s following “Fill Up” event venue was at Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban which was scheduled on 1 December 2018. He managed to sell 68,000 tickets which was a favorable outcome.
The following day, Nyovest performed at the Motsepe Foundation presented event, Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 headlined by Beyoncé and Jay-Z. On 15 December 2019, Nyovest performed at his fifth annual “Fill Up” event which was held at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, a city of North West – the province where he was born.After being criticized by hip Hop fans of leaving the genre, Cassper Nyovest returns in 2020 with A Hip Hop track titled Good For That.