ARTISTS: KP ILLEST
CITY & COUNTRY: WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA
VENUE: OAS1SONE
Namibian born singer-songwriter-rapper-entrepreneur superstar KP Illest, joins forces with WildAid, Rockstar, OAS1SONE and over 80 African superstar singer-songwriters in a historic first-ever a world tour series of Premium Livestream Concerts, to lend their voices in support of Africa’s wildlife conservation, raise awareness for climate change and plastics pollution, and have their messaging, voices, music and live performances broadcast across several Pan African and global platforms.
The Kenyan born artist KP Illest was raised in Namibia. His love for music was always there, from a young age as he and his family had a musical upbringing. His climb to fame has been a memorable one, as he kick-started his career in 2008. He whisked everyone's hearts during his rise to fame, which shortly paid off as he won the Sprite Urban Expression competition in 2011.
Earning the title of being an artist amongst artists, KP Illest was awarded an all-expense-paid trip to the United Kingdom and a chance to open up for the Black Eyed Peas at the Wireless Festival.
KP Illest released his debut mixtape "Kill Your Television Volume 1", in 2013. This allowed him to become Hype Magazine SA's hottest newcomer of 2013, and with that came the title of being Namibia's most promising young hip hop artist. In 2014, KP Illest dropped his first studio EP titled "Memoirs of a Dreamer", infusing jazz and Hip Hop to his unique sound. The "Memoirs of a Dreamer" EP was the first Namibian Hip Hop compilation to be made available across international digital stores and made it on the number one Hip Hop album on iTunes for two weeks.
Two years later in 2016 KP released his third mixtape titled "Kill Your Television Volume 3", it was through this song that KP got nominated at the NAMAs in 2016 and won the award for the best song with a message, along with a nomination for Best Hip Hop 2016.
It is safe to say that the artist had a bright future ahead of himself, as he took the industry by storm during the year 2017 when he released his debut album 'Price of Ambition'. This album provided him with the big break and opened doors for the artist in the mainstream. KP Illest released another single titled ‘Hold This’ in this song he expressed and spoke about choosing to abide by no rules and to not conform to the stereotypical rapper's lifestyle of wild nights and even wilder women.
In 2018 KP performed with Lioness a fellow Namibian artist at the Eunice Music Festival. KP released an album titled "Faith and Favour" which was a 13-track album that includes features by Kenny K, Monique English and Skrypt, as well as South African vocalist Cyber and international Nigerian musician Ice Prince. He released the music video ‘Jealousy’ in 2020 which was directed by fellow Namibian celebrity Maria Nepembe and was crowned Namibian Annual Music Awards Best Male Artist of the Year amongst several other awards.
ABOUT WILD AFRICA FUND X ROCKSTAR
WildAid and Rockstar are bringing together artists and musicians from across Africa by lending their voices to support wildlife conservation and have their messaging and music broadcast across several African and global platforms. Thank you for joining us in raising awareness of this important cause.
ABOUT WILD AFRICA FUND
The Wild Africa Fund employs mass communications – such as the Music for Wildlife Concerts and Poaching Steals From Us All campaigns – to raise awareness of poaching, habitat loss and human wildlife conflict. It promotes wildlife tourism and carbon offset as sources of conservation and sustainable development funding. It promotes and directly supports local wildlife programs from offices in Cape Town, Lagos, Harare and Kigali and is running the programs previously under WildAid in South Africa, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
