Veteran local rapper Kwesta was the latest guest on Zingah’s YouTube podcast “Choppin It Up With Bhuda T”.
During his discussion with Zingah, the “Spirit” hitmaker spoke about his journey in the industry, getting married and what’s next in his storied career.
Kwesta, who’s now in the 16th year of his career, also spoke on the success of “N’gud”, which is one of the biggest moments of his career.
He also finally addressed the age-old curiosity around the unusual texture of his voice.
“A cousin of mine got me into cigarettes, it wasn’t even something that I thought was cool,” he said. “I mean I go to multi-racial schools, I could find other things cool. I think poetry’s cool at that point.”
“This is not natural, I wasn’t born with it,” he added.
“It was cultivated. So a cousin of mine got into smoking cigarettes… but I always sh** on him and kind of went ‘The f*** are you doing?’ I was acting all high and mighty, all righteous and sh**.”
He added that he tried it one time and got dizzy and told himself he’d never do it again. But then he tried it again and he even eventually got hooked. “I’ve smoked for a very long time and the voice kind of broke.
“You know when it breaks because you’re growing and then it breaks because you’ve been f**king it up the whole time? So that’s what happened with this voice.”
In honour of the 16th year of his career, Kwesta spoke on how he’s going to be hosting his own one-man show at Carnival City on August 12. “I literally went to Carnival City and asked if they had a specific date for me. They had plenty and then I chose one.”
Kwesta says he chose August 12 because it’s a day after his birthday. “And I dropped the deposit for that to kind of secure the date, and my year has been filled with anxiety since because I just had this convo with self. To stop myself from backing out of it, I made an immediate commitment.”