Nutty O speaks on why Zimdancehall cannot be exported

Dancehall artist Nutty O recently gave a plethora of reasons why Zimbabwean Dancehall (Zimdancehall) will have a difficult time in trying to break into the international market.

Speaking at the recently held Zimdancehall Summit, Nutty O said that the genre should not be personalised, hence it should only be called Dancehall and not Zimdancehall.

“The fact that it is called Zimdancehall and peculiar to Zimbabwe will probably lead to people from other countries not getting interested because we have already personalised it, we should just call it Dancehall.”

Nutty O further justified why he mostly use English and sometimes mix with Shona in most of his songs.

“For Zimbabwean Dancehall to be exported we need to stop singing in Shona only, English is a language in which anyone around the world can vibe to and if we continue to sing in Shona we will not go anywhere,” he said.

Speaking to The ZimTainment on the sidelines of the Zimdancehall Summit, Nutty O urged the young and upcoming artists to create a big fan base at home if they want to make it internationally.

“This is a process, a person should have big numbers locally, make sure that you make it at home. It’s a game of numbers, Stone Bwouy, Wizkid will look at your numbers if you want to do a collabo with him.”

“Make sure you make it at home, produce music which is up to the standards and if you are talented you will always make it.”

Asked whether currently there are any artists who can represent Zimbabwe internationally, the Bugatti singer argued that only the new generation artists have the potential to make it internationally.

“We have a lot of artists that we can export from Zimbabwe but I tell you they are from the new generation. The upcoming artists are the only ones who have the desire to go out and showcase Zimbabwean flag as far as the music is concerned.”

The Military Touch Movement signee who featured on Jamaica’s Itana’s song titled Do it alone and is also on the Reggae Billboard Charts is one of the best and potential Zimbabwean export.