It’s no secret that South Africans have been waiting for new material from Nasty C. In fact, in a statement released earlier this week, streaming service Apple Music confirmed that ‘Zulu Man With Some Power’ by Nasty C is the biggest pre-add for an album in South Africa overall, as well as the biggest pre-add for a local artist in South Africa, and the biggest pre-add globally for a South African artist. Now, the highly-anticipated album has arrived – and it’s certainly been worth the wait.
Nasty C, who is currently signed to Universal Music Group and makes his Def Jam Recordings debut with this project, has tapped some of the biggest names in music as features on this project which sees the star celebrate his roots. Apart from American icons Ari Lennox and T.I., Nasty C also has a stellar local guestlist on the project with verses from Tellaman, Rowlene. Lil Gotit and Lil Skeed.
“The collabs happened very organically. In the States, they love collabs, its like the culture there,” Nasty admits. “The collabs happened through people knowing me and getting in touch with people who know me to set it up so there was actually no plan”, he said.
On the album, Nasty C admits that the record was inspired by a conversation he had with American hip hop producer No I.D. “Myself and No I.D have a song together and about two years ago we were speaking about culture and how some artists are aggressive about their culture in their work while others finesse it,” the rapper says. “We spoke about Snoop Dogg as an example and at the time I had been thinking about how I could integrate my culture into my music but still keep my music authentically hip hop.”
The rapper adds that ‘Zulu Man’ was born out of this idea and that it was important for him to release the song before the album dropped. “You know I purposely decided for Zulu Man to be the second single so that people can hear it, enjoy it, and then look forward to the rest of the album. I did not want people having the anticipation of just a Zulu song,” he says.
As the track is a focal point on the album, the rapper explains that African music is making waves around the world for a reason – and he’s happy to be part of this phenomenon. However, many still associate the continent with the afrobeat genre. Speaking on the African music industry and peoples perceptions of music from the continent, he said: “People just think that the only thing coming out of Africa is Afrobeats. Like I could be overseas and when people find out I am an artist from South Africa they ask me if I am an Afrobeats artists.”
The rapper adds “So I don’t have any issues with any genre but there is so much coming out of Africa that is not Afrobeats. Gqom made some moves but now that seems to have faded a little. Artists like Elaine and Sho Madjozi, who are now signed to international labels like myself, will let people know we have R&B and rap and everything else”.
‘Zulu Man With Some Power’ is out now and is available to stream on all major digital music platforms.
