Kimani Stewart, who performs under the name K Zwysh, is set to release his first lyric album on January 25, 2023 out of Frass Friday.
The 24-year-old rapper, who hails from Stevedore Housing Scheme in Georgetown, has revealed that his album will be released via the radio first. His lyric album, which will consist of six songs, is the result of him being introduced to the platform, Frass Friday back in 2018. He said rapping at Frass Friday every Friday motivated him to keep rapping, and that helped him to finally figure out that rapping was what he really wanted to do.
The entertainer told this newspaper that while growing up, both of his parents loved music; one used to listen to oldies and the other rock music. This early exposure, he said, motivated him to sing in the classical choir at Central Secondary school. He added that when the school choir performed at its first music competition in 2010 against other schools in Guyana, it received an honourable mention.
After K Zwysh finished school in 2014, he didn’t make music a priority since he had the idea that new artists were “being used until they can’t be used anymore”. He explained that even though he never thought of following up music back then, he wrote songs as a hobby; one was in the dancehall genre and titled ”fraid of nobody”.
In 2018 at the age of 21 years old, he started to make music a focus when a friend of his who performed rap music at the platform, Frass Friday, invited him along. K Zwysh also decided to give rap a try, since he was already listening to all forms of rap music.
Although rapping at Frass Friday every Friday motivated him to keep rapping and allowed him to find his purpose in music, at first it wasn’t that great for him since he was nervous performing, never having faced an audience like that before, also given that everyone who was singing was very talented.
He opined that other than singing and competing in the classical choir at school, he never sung anywhere else until he started to rap at Frass Friday. He told this newspaper, ”I was fumbling for words, stopping in sentences, and going off beat”.
Later on, as he continued to rap at Frass Friday, he adjusted to the audience and realised there was nothing to be nervous about. Promoter Jahie Charles and Public Relations Officer Esau Paul crafted and moulded him into the person he is today in his music; they improved his rapping so he can be the best.
He later had his first studio exposure with Chanzs Records, which he eventually joined, and performed his first rap song (lyric), “Mother Earth” at Frass Friday. The rapper noted that he prefers to focus on the art rather than the visual because the visuals take away from the audio, and it loses what the message is about.
K Zwysh said that under Frass Friday he writes his songs and performs them at various places. “Mother Earth”, his signature song, was officially performed last year January at Frass Friday but was heard live on YouTube before. He wrote that song in tribute to the two guys who were killed in Berbice, and other things that happened throughout the country.
“Shot The Ball”, his second lyric song was out there since August, 2021. This was performed at Diamond. This song, he said, was supposed to be done in collaboration with his friend, but they didn’t get to do it, so he did it in tribute to him.
“So Fine”, which he performed last year, in early November on the radio, was for his ex-girlfriend complimenting her on how she looks fine.
K Zwysh, who currently makes a living as a customer service representative at Teleperformance, believes that music can help youths today. He encouraged them by saying, “Anything to keep you off the streets, and to keep a gun out your hands, it will be good… because if I wasn’t doing music, I could be doing something else… it could be good, it could be bad.”
K Zwysh’s music can be found on YouTube at Kevin Kzwysh, Facebook: K Zwysh Official, and Instagram: @ItzKevinKzwysh. (Subhana Shiwmangal)
