Born on 1st December 1993, King Illest is an Award winning HipHop artiste and Originator of the Tonga Trap Lingo. The rapper has emerged to become one of the biggest name in Modern Zambian HipHop.
He started his music journey in 2013 and released his first single called “Swinging Low” the same year as an English rapper. His inspirational for doing music comes from Tupac, Snoop Dog, Kanye West and Usher. King Illest is a Graduate from ZCAS where he studied Marketing and later Purchasing and Supply.
In 2017, he switched to rapping in Tonga citing lack of Originality as an English rapper and released his breakout hit Ndisweke which was produced by Reverb. The song was heavily praised for his delivery and the Classic music video. He released Mazuba in 2017 and later “Cilatondwa” in 2018, which cemented his title in the game as the Originator of Tonga Trap Lingo.
King Illest won the Ballantine’s True Music Africa competition in 2018 and was chosen to represent Zambia at the Broiler Room Experience in South African the same year after Knocking out the likes of Clique Viral and Willz aka Mr. Nyopole. He was also subsequently named the Brand Ambassador for Ballantines in Zambia.
He released another Smash hit called “Bacheende” in 2019, which featured Macky 2. The song went on to top several Radio Charts and was later crowned Hot FM’s Song of the Year. He later released Kakwama and Mood in 2020, both singles featured Chef 187 and earned him huge Commercial acclaim. He won Awards for Best Artiste Southern Province at Kwacha Music Awards in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
His “King of the South” title came after Switching to Rapping in Tonga as he was originally called “Killah Da Illest” from inception. He describes his music as the definition of self-expression and originality. King Illest hopes to become the biggest star in African with hopes of winning a BET Award and also a Grammy.
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