Elias Siphosethu Neli was born on the 29th of November 1999, in Johannesburg and moved to the Eastern Cape province in Steynsburg, to stay with his grandmother. In 2008, when he had moved back to Johannesburg
to live with his mother, his hip-hop influence had now grown and could identify his musical style and
there was no denying that hip-hop was his first love. Though at the time there was a strong admiration of
house music from his surroundings, this did not change his musical approach and direction. Growth
Kennedy, like many rap artists grew up listening to Lil Wayne, Eminem, J Cole, Kendrick Lamar and he also listens to a South African/ Angolan rapper, Priddy Ugly.

His stage name came about when he decided to go real about his identity by deciding to use Lwando
which translates to 'growth', this was late in 2020 after having used and called by many stage names.
Growth Kennedy says he was inspired by the genuine meaning of the name and decided to start using it as
his official stage name. His name was inspired by his aunt and figured that to make the name more
appealing he had to use 'Kennedy', which is the former US president's name, J.F Kennedy to showcase
his bars, his bombs and heavy lyrical skill content which is discerned in his music

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