ByLwansta

ByLwansta
Lwansta performing at Back To The City Festival 2015
Background information
Birth name	Lwandile Dominic Nkanyuza
Also known as	Lwansta, NORMVL
Born	(1995-06-30) June 30, 1995 Kokstad, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa
Genres	Hip hop
Occupation(s)	Rapper, graphic designer, entrepreneur, director
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	2008 - Present
Labels	Independent
Associated acts	Kimosabe, Lil Trix, Champ' Tile, YeYe, FonZo, M2Kane
Website	http://normvlizm.com

Lwandile Dominic Nkanyuza (born 30 June 1995 in Kokstad), better known by his stage name ByLwansta (also known as simply Lwansta) is an independent South African hip hop artist, most known for his South African Hip Hop Awards 2014^[1] nominated mixtape, NORMVL^[2] and accompanying song visuals for his single Lindiwe^[3] which takes the form of a short film.

ByLwansta's rap style has been described to contain "a refreshingly controversial tone, and the brutal honesty of his content is reminiscent of a young Eminem" by Fred Kayembe, editor of Hype Magazine.^[4]

Life and career

Early life

ByLwansta was born and grew up in Kokstad, Kwa-Zulu Natal, as the third born of four children (eldest sibling passed away).^[5]

Lwansta's parents are originally from Mount Ayliff, Eastern Cape but relocated to Kokstad in 1994, a year before Lwansta's birth. They have, since 2005, been divorced, an event that has served as great inspiration for the mood and tone of Lwansta's writings. He is the younger brother of singer-songwriter and record producer, Kimosabe,^[6] who inspired Lwansta to begin writing and reciting lyrics at the age of 12, as he (Lwansta) was always present during recording sessions hosted by Kimosabe with other Kokstad (and East Griqualand areas) rappers in a home recording studio he built in a backroom of their parents home called "Da59 Recordings", thus eventually encouraging Lwansta to step into the booth himself a year later.

Lwansta attended and spent his entire schooling career at St Patrick's College in Kokstad, and took great interest in sports, participating in every male sport offered, favorably rugby, in which he excelled, receiving special recognition upon being chosen as part of East Griqualand's Highlands rugby team in 2007 while in grade 6. Lwansta went on to captain his school's first team rugby squad in 2013, a year in which he was also a prefect and house captain.

Career Beginnings

Lwansta and Kimosabe were introduced to hip hop music at the ages 8 and 10 years old, by their uncle who was living with them at the time, namely the likes of Eminem, D12 and 50 Cent. They would take their uncle's physical copies, namely The Marshall Mathers LP, The Eminem Show and Get Rich Or Die Tryin' without his knowledge and play them on their desktop computer, however, their mother, a devoted Christian, was concerned and disapproved of the music she heard play from her children's computer speakers and banned it. This didn't stop them from listening to these artists, and they began listening to their music undercover in their bedroom.

Towards mid-2008, Lwansta had written a fair amount of lyrics and also began creating track lists and designing cover artwork on his father's desktop computer for projects he imagined would come to life, often searching in the dictionary for appealing track and album titles.

Lwansta made his debut feature and recording session on Kimosabe's (then Sixfo) "Da59's In The Building" record, stepping behind the microphone for the first time. He grew incredibly fascinated with recording, but developed a distaste for his rap voice, but went on to release his debut mix tape titled 'A Star In The Makin', which featured various remixes of songs such as Timbaland's 'Say Something', Sophia Fresh's "What It Is" and more, selling plain white CD copies of this mix tape to his school mates.

Since having recorded music, Lwansta has sold physical copies of his mix tapes all over neighboring KZN towns and the Eastern Cape. Lwansta also began to make use of the internet to spread his music through the use of websites such as Reverbnation, SoundCloud, Facebook and Twitter.

Career Developments and Highlights

Late-2011, Lwansta released a single titled "Came, Saw, Conquered" , his first single completely produced, written, arranged and recorded by himself. The song served as his most commercially successful in 2013, having being playlisted and charted within the Top 5 or number 1 on local radio stations such as Mdantsane FM, 5FM, Eldos FM, Red Wire Radio (Online), VOW FM (Wits Radio), Alfred Nzo Community, DzzNuttzRadio (International), Gagasi FM and number 2 on a Top 25 chart on online international radio station We Hustle 365 iRadio. The single also appeared on the 57th issue of Hype Magazine on its Hype Sessions 52 alongside iFani, Cassper Nyovest, OkMalumKoolKat and more.

In 2012 Lwansta was awarded "Artist of the Year" at the annual Alfred Nzo Community Radio^[5] Awards having his chart topping single, "Came, Saw, Conquered" playlisted on the station and managing to maintain the number 1 spot on their Rise Up and Shine Top 20 Chart for a whole month and 2 weeks, on their Friday show hosted by Dr Mystiq and DJ Pitch.

Lwansta then went on to create quite a prominent internet presence through uploading and sharing content onto platforms such as YouTube, and having been featured on various blogs and appearing in the 50th Issue of Hype Magazine on the Newcomer's Delight section in the magazine,^[4] and a few months later was featured on the 56th issue of the same magazine with an interview under the Up and Coming section.

A fan base began to grow formidably for Lwansta after being drafted in the top 30 finalist for the 2013 South African Hip Hop Awards 2013: The Corner Cypher with a viscous freestyle titled #TheImSoSoGoodFreestyle and ended up being one of the 2 victors of the competition where he cyphered with the likes of HHP, RedButton, Blaklez, N'Veigh, ZuluBoy and more.

NORMVL Mixtape cover art designed by Lwansta

NORMVL and Lindiwe Short Film

Following the completion of his matric year, Lwansta moved to Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal in 2014 to further his studies. This was his first time living away from home.

This new environment meant a new sound and new adventures for Lwansta, as the isolation allowed him to learn new things about himself, suppressed feelings began to resurface, as well as the discovery of new personality traits, all which lead to the conceptualization of the term "NORMVL" - a term coined by Lwansta which believes serves as the blueprint of his life, passed and present.

His realization and conceptualization of the concept led to Lwansta writing lyrics for a mixtape of the same name.

The NORMVL Mixtape serves as Lwansta's 7th independent release, and the first to receive commercial success as a complete body of work, released on the 21st of August 2014, online and via physical release, the latter which was distributed either by hand-to-hand or post by Lwansta.

The 13 track mixtape was funded and packaged by Lwansta, who used his grocery money to do so, inspiring a line in the project's title track "It's that time of the month, when two-minute noodles are like a mother___ing meal bro".^[7]

Following the project's release in August, it went on to receive 3 nominations at the 2014 Original Material Awards for Mixtape of the Year, Best Sleeve Design and Best Lyricist for Lwansta, all three which he lost.^[8] A few months later, NORMVL was nominated at the South African Hip Hop Awards 2014 for Mixtape of the Year, which he lost to DJ Switch.^[9]

The following year, Lwansta did not release any new music and began working on visuals for the most popular song on NORMVL, Lindiwe, despite its lack of a commercial appeal. Lwansta took it upon himself to direct, shoot, edit and star in the Lindiwe Short Film due to creative differences with AFDA students and the lack of funding to budget for it to be shot by a "professional".

While promoting the idea of the video's existence, Skeem Saam actress Pretty Ncayiyana^[10] reached out to Lwansta about the lead role for Lindiwe, immediately she was cast.

The Lindiwe Short Film was released onto YouTube on the 30th of September, and achieved over 30 thousand views in 6 days, a huge milestone for an independent artist in South Africa.^[4]

The video has been placed at #18 on Hype Magazine's Top 20 Underrated Videos in the 71st issue.^[11]

Discography

Mixtapes

• A Star In The Makin' (2008)
• The Rap Off (2009)
• The Oven (2009)
• 102 A Hawthorn Street (2010) _{(with Kimosabe)}
• Not Even A Scratch (2011)
• A Different Direction (2011)
• NORMVL (2014)

EPs

• Your Absolutely Right EP (2016)

Awards and nominations

Alfred Nzo Community Radio Awards

Original Material Awards

South African Hip Hop Awards

Filmography

Short Films

References