Poor Cassper. The dude was already a ball of contradictions - mulling over his underdog status one moment, gloating about his wealth the next.
Don Billiato, as he calls himself these days, is someone as driven by ego as he is plagued by fame.
This year, even his die hard fans have come to understand that he’s human, too. All flesh and bone and prone to error and inconsistency, like the rest of us.
The 31-year-old rapper and entrepreneur has entered unfamiliar territory. For the first time in a very long time, he's now an underdog grappling with the reality of having to prove himself to a public that’s increasingly suspicious of his abilities as a rapper and his polarising persona.
Despite this, when I spoke with him at the press conference at Moloko Pretoria ahead of his exhibition boxing match against Priddy Ugly tonight, Nyovest told me that he felt he was still at the peak of his powers and was leading the recent SA hip hop charge: “I mean the conversation started with a line on a song called “Ooh Ah” where I got at everyone and said I inspired everyone and hip hop only dies when I say so,” he said.
“So the record that everyone is giving credit to, which is 150 Bars, was a response to my song. So they tell it however they wanna tell it, but it changes when my name is in it.
“So I’m happy about the sport of hip hop being very vibrant again. It’s what birthed the Cassper Nyovest brand.”
In many ways, Nyovest is still as relevant as ever, poking at his rivals on social media at every opportunity and grabbing our attention with his many business ventures.
But the reverence for the “Cassper Nyovest” brand is declining with each weekly Twitter whine about how everyone hates him.
Lately, in a shameless ploy to remain in the thick of things, he has resorted to flooding the market with music. Over the past month or so, he’s released three singles and three music videos.
And he doesn’t intend on slowing down any time soon. “I’m definitely dropping a new song every time I reach a million views,” he said.
“I made a commitment with my fans, and that’s what we're gonna do. I feel like I’ve got a lot of music that I’ve been recording, a lot of music that I’ve promised the fans that I’ve been starving them.
“Them getting the songs to a million views is them showing that we want more, and we’re enjoying what you’re doing, so we’re just gonna keep dropping them. It could be two weeks, three weeks, whatever. I’m ready.”
In the midst of this, there’s the small matter of tonight’s fight, which has almost become a sideshow. With all the talk about his music, it feels like not much time has been spent on preparations for the fight.
But he insists he’s very excited and confident of an easy win.
“Damn man, I’m always excited when we can make the fight happen,” he said. “A lot of people like talking, even in professional boxing. It’s very difficult to make the fight happen.”
He also added how he was feeling nervous due to ticket sales moving slowly, and he’s feeling like he’s carrying the promotional load by himself.
“I am anxious, man. The pressure falls on me with the business side of things, the marketing, putting everything together and attendance. Should there be two people at that fight, it’s gonna be Cassper Nyovest. It’s not gonna be Cassper Nyovest and Priddy Ugly.
“And also, should I lose again, what does it mean for me, as a celebrity boxer? So it’s tricky. I definitely have to put on a show.”
Nyovest added that he needs to build trust with his fans and referenced how, for his last fight, he said he’d knock Naak Musiq out, but he ended up losing, so this time around, he needs to show up and knock out his opponent.
Following a hugely successful run between 2010 and 2020, which saw him awarded the Artist of the Decade award by the South African Hip Hop Awards, Nyovest feels he has more in the tank and can replicate that success.
“I think we’re about to go on another 10-year run. I think we’re about to rewrite history. I’m getting the same energy from when it started when everybody was trying to overlook me and make it look like there’s other guys.
“So for me, it’s like, ‘Ayt yall wanna try this again? Ok, let’s see what happens in the next 10 years’. So I’m very energised, I’m very excited, and I’m getting back to what I do best, which is rapping my ass off on the mic and putting out hits. That’s what I do.”
With his frequent beefs and his alienating himself from the industry by constantly playing victim, Nyovest runs the risk of isolating himself and boxing himself in.
At one point during the press conference, Nyovest appeared to take a potshot at AKA and K.O when he bemoaned that their latest chart-topping singles, “Sete” and “Lemons”, aren’t actually hip-hop songs and are instead more afrobeats leaning, pointing out how he felt it was unfair how when he delves into other sounds he draws criticism, but they get celebrated.
I asked him why he felt that way and to expand on this thought.
“I think Africa, right now, is like one thing. We’re getting closer and closer to each other. Amapiano plays in Nigeria just as much as it plays in SA, which is dope. So for me, I think we’re all influencing each other.
“There’s Nigerian guys and afrobeats guys making amapiano, and now we have some of our big artists starting to make afrobeats. I’m not hating on that.
“I was just highlighting that, for me, it’s something that I’ve observed everyone else can play with sounds, and it’s all cool. As soon as I do it, I’m not a rapper anymore. That’s what happens when you’re the biggest, man. Everyone’s got something to say.”
Okay, Cassper.