Cassper Nyovest - Net Worth, Biography, Family, Age, Albums

There are music artistes and there is a music artiste. Cassper Nyovest is a music artiste. He is one who is held dear by South Africans despite the several controversies and embroilment he has found himself in. Cassper Nyovest is a South African rapper, songwriter, entrepreneur and record producer.

About Cassper Nyovest – Early Life And Age

Cassper Nyovest was born on the 16th of December 1990 and named Refiloe Maele Phoolo but bears Cassper Nyovest as a stage name. He was born and brought up in Born and raised in Mahikeng, North West. His parents are Muzuki Phoolo and Letsebela Phoolo. He is not the only child as he has a brother, Khotso Phoolo that died in 2003 and a sister Tsholofelo Phoolo.

Cassper Education Background

Refiloe Maele Phoolo alias Cassper Nyovest attended Sol Plaatjie Secondary School. He was not much of an academic. He loved sports and was an athlete in school. While in school, he began rapping at 12 years of age and got popular amongst his circle in school. He formed a hip-hop group while in school called Childhood Gangsta while he was only 13 years of age. He eventually left Childhood Gangsta to join a different group comprising of eight members.

The name of the group was Slow Motion. Among members of the group included record producer, Aashish Gangaram of Ganja Beatz. Refiloe Maele Phoolo alias Cassper Nyovest was shipped to his grandmother’s house in Potchefstroom after he failed grade ten exams in 2006. In 2007, when he was sixteen years old, he decided that he had had enough of school and dropped out to the consternation of his parents.

Venture into music

Cassper Nyovest relocated to Johannesburg in 2008. This was to pursue a career in music as a rapper and producer. He told his parents, who were aghast at his decision, that he would rather chase his dream, which he believed would work out, rather than playing it safe and regretting it his whole life.

His music career officially kicked off after he signed a deal to become a member of motswako record label Impact Sounds in 2006. The record label also had other signed artists like Tuks Senganga and Morafe. Cassper Nyovest however, did not last long with Impact Sounds because of creative differences. He officially left the label in 2008 and became a stand-alone artist.

After Cassper Nyovest left Impact Sounds, he was discovered by late rapper Hip Hop Pantsula while he was performing. This led to a business relationship and a feature on Pantsula’s song, Wamo Tseba Mth.

Refiloe Maele Phoolo alias Cassper Nyovest moved back to his hometown where he established his own Record Label, Family Tree Records. This happened in 2014. Prior to establishing his label, he released a debut single in 2013. The title was Gusheshe and featured Okmalumkoolkat. In 2014, he released another single Doc Shebeleza. It was named after the kwaito artist Doc Shebeleza. The song catapulted him to limelight and he had a lot of positive reviews even from the Princess of Africa, Yvonne Chaka Chaka.

Not missing a beat, especially with his newfound fame, he released his debut album on the 18th of July 2014. The title was Tsholofelo and was named after his sister. It was a groundbreaking success and was number one on the iTunes South Africa album chart for July and August of the same year. October 2014, saw him being ranked as number one on the MTV Base show. Other accolades he collated were, The Hottest MC in Africa, and was number two on MTV South Africa’s Hottest MC’s in 2014.

Following the resounding success of his debut album, Tsholofelo, Cassper Nyovest released the platinum edition of the album. He tweaked the album by adding new songs. On the list were collaborations with Casey Veggies, DJ Drama, Wizkid and Anatii. The platinum edition was released on 17 April 2015 with a limit of 10,000 copies printed.

Refiloe Maele Phoolo, alias Cassper Nyovest, made an announcement towards the end of the year 2015 on his Twitter account. The announcement was that he was planning to headline a concert at Ticketpro Dome, Johannesburg on 31 with the title Fill Up The Dome. This was scheduled to happen on the 31st of October 2015. He said in the announcement, “I want to fill the dome, which currently accommodates up to 20,000 people … to its full capacity”. To whet the appetites of his fans decided to release his second album Refiloe on the day of the event.

Cassper Nyovest released Mama I Made It (#MIMI), which is the lead single from his second album and one of the songs to promote Fill Up The Dome on the 14th of August 2015.

To the surprise of many, Cassper Nyovest sold out his tickets for his event, Fill Up The Dome. As the event day dawned bright and clear, ticket buyers and guests all received a complimentary copy of the Refiloe album. The resultant of the action was that the album was certified gold on the same day. Following shipments above 40,000 copies, the album was certified Platinum.

Following the success of Fill Up The Some, Cassper Nyovest announced a sequel, Fill Up Orlando Stadium, which would take place in Orlando Stadium, Soweto in Johannesburg. The event was scheduled to hold on the 29th of October 2016. The event held and was a huge success as there was a total of over 40,000 attendance. This was the stadium’s full capacity.

The resultant of both events was his ranking as number one on MTV Base: South Africa’s Hottest MCs list. He was also ranked number one on the 2016 Hottest Rapper in Africa since 2014. He ranked number one in 2014 and 2016.

Refiloe Maele Phoolo alias Cassper Nyovest released the lead single Tito Mboweni from his third album Thuto on the 4th of March 2017. Cassper named the album after South Africa’s Minister of Finance and former SARB governor Tito Mboweni. The song was a hit in South Africa and trended commercially for the lyric “Shaa Shaa” mimicking the sound paper money makes. The album Thuto, was eventually released officially on the 5th of May 2017. On the same day of its release, the album was certified gold by RiSA. A few weeks later, the album was certified platinum.

Cassper Nyovest became a force to reckon with in South African music. He announced his third “Fill Up” event. The event held on 17th day of November 2017, and the venue was at the 94,736 capacity stadium, FNB Stadium, Johannesburg. The plan of the event was to fill up 75,000 capacity. Cassper however, had issues providing financial support for the show. Luckily for him, he was able to get some sponsors like Cîroc SA, SABC 1 and Budweiser. The event, despite not selling out, was still recorded as a success.

The year 2018, dawned bright and clear for Cassper Nyovest. He released his fourth album Sweet and Short. As a megastar that he is, the album hit a platinum certification on its day of release.

Other Fill Up and social events

Cassper Nyovest had another”Fill Up” event and the venue was at Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban. The date was on the 1st of December 2018. 68,000 tickets were sold. On the 2nd day of December, Refiloe Maele Phoolo performed at the Motsepe Foundation presented event, Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100 which was headlined by Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

On the 15th day of December 2019, Cassper Nyovest hosted his fifth annual “Fill Up” event held at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, a city of North West, which happens to be the province of his birth. Cassper Nyovest released another hip-hop track titled Good For That. This was after he faced criticism from other South African hip-hop artists and ridiculed for leaving hip-hop.

Cassper Nyovest Music list

Tsholofelo released in 2014.
Refiloe released in 2015.
Thuto released in 2017.
Sweet and Short released in 2018.
Any minute now released in 2020.

Endorsement deals

Refiloe Maele Phoolo alias Cassper Nyovest has garnered several endorsement deals with several brands and Chief among them is his Ciroc deal worth millions of Rands. He was endorsed in 2017.
Cassper signed another endorsement deal with MTN and AG Mobile. They launched a smartphone named, AG Hashtag which was inspired and also partly designed by him.

Other brands that endorsed Cassper Nyovest as a brand ambassador Shoprite, Samsung South Africa, Coca-Cola, KFC SA, Castle Lite and Nike SA.

Cassper Personal Life And Relationship

Cassper Nyovest and actress Boitumelo Thulo were involved in a romantic relationship. They confirmed their love life on a July issue of DRUM magazine. This was after they denied severally that they were involved romantically. The confirmation happened in July 2015. After the magazine published that the couple were engaged, they took to their social media accounts and denied it.

Refiloe Maele Phoolo, however, believes in keeping his relationships private and does not let people know much about it. The local grapevine, however, speculated that besides Boity Thulo, Cassper had dated Fezokuhle Zulu, Thobeka Majozi, Amanda DuPont and Lizelle Thabane.

Cassper Awards And Accolades and awards

Alongside the several awards already written above, Refiloe Maele Phoolo was nominated alongside Nasty C, Sarkodie from Ghana, Kenyan group Sauti Sol, and Tanzanian singer Vanessa Mdee for Best African Artiste at 12th Headies Award in Nigeria on the 13th of April.

Cassper Nyovest Controversies

It is not news that Cassper Nyovest and AKA are rivals. Their issues escalated after Cassper made a tweet stating that his song “Doc Shebeleza” was the biggest song in South African Hip-Hop. AKA got incensed by the post and felt it was made to slight the efforts he was making to promote his new single Congratulate. He took to his Twitter account and tweeted, “There’s a rapper running around saying he got the biggest song in the country … I challenge you to find his song in the iTunes Top 100”.

As expected, which is normal between rivals in the music industry, Cassper also took to his own Twitter handle citing reasons for his claims.

It was not surprising when the argument escalated and they went on and on. Too bad it was not physical as a little display of fisticuffs would have given local bloggers content.

The brawl did not end on social media though. In August 2014, the two musicians were supposed to both perform on SABC 1 music show, Live Amp. In the course of the preparations, a trouble loving member of AKA’s entourage allegedly pulled a gun on Cassper Nyovest and his team.

More dust was raised in 2015 when Cassper accused AKA of slapping him. The resultant was the subsequent release of diss tracks, slighting each other’s persona. In 2018, in the course of an interview when Cassper Nyovest was asked about his relationship with AKA, he made a statement along the lines of they, remaining enemies forever. A lot of fans, myself included however wishes that the duo would let go of their differences and pride and reconcile. A collaboration from both of them would “bang” so hard.

In the year 2018, Xitsonga musician, Benny Mayengani wanted to do his concert and used Cassper’s line naming it #FillUpGiyaniStadium. Cassper Nyovest was incensed and accused Mayengani of using his trademark. He did this by sending him a cease and desist letter. After the matter was investigated, it was revealed the FillUp trademark does not belong to Casper and hence no action can be taken.