South African hip-hop hero Nasty C has returned with a swaggering, club-ready new anthem, “Best I Ever Had.” Nasty C heaps praise on the best partner he’s ever dated, showering her with compliments, jewelry, and the finer things in life. Over a bouncing beat that begs for a busy dance floor, Nasty C reestablishes himself as one of the most versatile MCs in the game.
For nearly a decade, Nasty C (Nsikayesizwe David Junior Ngcobo) has had a singular focus: to push the boundaries of his own potential. He has been pursuing his hip-hop dreams since childhood when, legend has it, he began rapping and learning to lay down tracks at age nine under the tutelage of his older brother.
At just fifteen years of age, Nasty released his debut mixtape, One Kid, A Thousand Coffins (2012). He shot to stardom in 2014, with his boundary-breaking second mixtape, Price City, and “Juice Back,” a continent-wide instant classic smash. The “Juice Back” remix featured Nigerian muso, Davido, and South African rapper Cassper Nyovest. This early success won Nasty C the Best Freshman prize at the South African Hip-Hop Awards.
Nasty C’s popularity turned up a notch with his 2016 debut album Bad Hair, which hit No.1 on the iTunes local chart and was the country’s most-streamed album within 24 hours of release. Its re-release, Bad Hair Extensions featured French Montana. The seminal album earned Nasty C four Metro FM Music Awards, a South African Music Award, and a BET Awards nomination. The momentum surged with Strings And Bling in 2018, named one of South Africa’s greatest hip-hop albums by local outlets like TimesLive and IOL.
Nasty C was the only South African nominated for a BET Hip-Hop Award in the Best International Flow category in 2019, and was also nominated for an MTV Europe Music Award that year. Strings and Bling won him two South African Music Awards and two AFRIMMAs (All African Muzik Magazine Awards).
