AKA upstaged hip-hop's new wunderkind Cassper Nyovest at the South African Hip-Hop Awards held at the Lyric Theatre in Johannesburg on Wednesday night.

The Congratulate hitmaker scooped four awards, including best male artist, while his newcomer rival settled for three.

Other winners were Kwesta, who took lyricist of the year award, and Solo snatched the best newcomer award.

The beef between AKA and Nyovest was palpable. The adversaries sat a row apart and there were undertones of rivalry.

But when Nyovest accepted the song of the year award he declared some truce when he said: "I want to take this moment to ask all South African rappers to unite. I'd like to congratulate AKA for a great night, you really worked hard brother, you deserve the awards," he said, adding that K.O's Caracara, which was not nominated, should have won.

Later Nyovest told Sowetan that "the show was really entertaining. But from the morning I felt I wasn't going to win anything, but I'm glad I took the one I wanted the most [album of the year]."

A few technical glitches during the show were forgotten thanks to the entertaining and quirky hosting from comedian Pule and co-host playwright Jbobz, who kept the crowd in stitches with their skits.

Eccentric fashion and thick American accents were the order of the day - the only thing missing was clouds of smoke and the auditorium would have been mistaken for a club.

Riky Rick's performance was the standout performance.

The awards were attended by notable music industry heavyweights like Native Rhythms's Sipho Sithole, Tamara Dey and Bafana Bafana player Reneilwe Letsholonyane.

A heartfelt montage of the late Mizchief was played and a brass band came on stage to honour the life of the late rapper, who died in September this year.