Bio
Kwesta (real name Senzo Vilakazi) is a South African rapper and hip hop artist.
Vilakazi was born in the township of Katlehong in the East Rand of Johannesburg, where his dreams to become a rap star began. In high school he had a keen interest in poetry that received positive feedback from the teachers and students encouraging him to move forward, but it was when he won a talent show at school that he realised he had a talent of the spoken word.
In 2003 he and a group of friends formed a rap crew called Ghetto Fellaz, which then changed to The Juvenylz with the addition of a new member. The crew had high hopes and were waiting to be discovered.
When the situation did not pan out as planned for the group, Senzo knew he had to take an aggressive tone to his career and started recording his own material in his make shift home studio.
It was only in 2005 when he met Max from Africa's Most Southern (AMS) Record Company that progress was made. AMS had their own recording facilities where he honed his rapping skills on a number of songs.
As Kwesta, he went on to win the MC of the month competition on Yfm's Rap Activity Jam and also took first place on The Freestyle Kings special on e.tv's Shiz Niz. He actively kept his name on peoples tongues by performing at the Miss Confidence Show, The Rand Show and The Durban Beach Festival to name a few.
With numerous songs recorded and on stage experience under his belt, his demo made its way to the Buttabing Entertainment offices in April 2007. His demo was received with great enthusiasm and this led to the official induction of Kwesta as a member of the Buttabing Entertainment family.
Since embarking on his journey with Buttabing Entertainment, he has traveled across the country as part of the entertainment line up and judging panel on the Sprite Hip Hoop Tour which featured The Ventilation Street Tape; and also took part in the Nokia Defend Your Street campaign where he collaborated with various artists.
In 2010 he was part of Brand South Africa's World Cup campaign to create awareness and excitement amongst South Africans for the World Cup. He then went on to record MTN's World Cup anthem "Everywhere You Go" with Kelly Rowland and various African artists such as 2Face and Slikour.
His street banger "Shap Fede" created a solid buzz and received good rotation on local radio stations; it was accompanied by a mixtape hosted by the DJ C-Live (5FM). The mixtape was made available for free online and over 3,000 people went on to download it.
His debut album, Special ReKwest, was released in September 2010.
In 2015 he was the Kasi Host of an episode of the SABC1 documentary series Mi Kasi Su Kasi.