SOUTH AFRICA – Musician Prince Kaybee has said Zimbabwean music is failing to break barriers because the country’s most popular genre among youth, Zimdancehall, does not have the strength to break barriers internationally.
The comments by Prince Kaybee (real name Kabelo Motsamai) come amidst heated debate on why the country’s musicians have failed to break regional and international barriers like their South African counterparts.
In a post on social media, Prince Kaybee, who has played in Zimbabwe extensively in the past, said dancehall limited the prospects of the country’s music exports.
“I have been to Zimbabwe a lot, mostly in Bulawayo and Harare, even stayed there for a month while recording The 4th Republic,” he wrote on X.
“I’ve noticed that the fabric of Zimbabwean music, its core inability to be exported, isn’t a quality issue. You guys actually have world-class engineers and songwriting.”
He continued: “The issue is the type of sonics that have been consistent throughout the years, which is Zimdancehall. It’s a very small genre that is a subgenre in and of itself, and it’s too layered to be commercially feasible in South Africa.”
The music DJ said the affinity for Zimdancehall made it hard for some Zimbabwean artists to adopt to new genres like amapiano.
“Even with adopting what’s happening in the world, like Amapiano for instance, the writing and lyrical approach still has that dancehall texture. That makes it hard for the music to evolve and grow.”
