We started September In Motion with sculptors in Bulawayo, and we're finishing it in Wolverhampton. Nutty O's second album, Different Root, didn't just go to number one at home. It was built to travel, and two days after release it was already on a stage in the English Midlands.
Seed to root
Different Root came out on 28 August, five years after his debut, Mustard Seed. Nutty O explained the title to Rolling Stone Africa. The first album was the seed, and this one is the root, the stage that decides how big the tree can grow. He also plays on the sound of the word: this time he chose a different route, launching abroad rather than at home first.
It's a 15-track record, according to its Audiomack listing. It opens with Too Much featuring Nigeria's Fido, a new version of the song Greedysouth notes won Song of the Year at the 2026 NAMAs. The home-grown guest list is strong too: Holy Ten and The Glory Sound on the lead single Mercy, Takura on Darling, Gemma Griffiths on Mai Maria, Atenda Chinx on Chando and Kinnah on Ma1. Jamaica's Bugle joins him on Everything Is Possible.
Greedysouth reports that the production is spread across Young DLC, Tavin Lee, Infinity Beatz, Kay B, Ghost Magician and Spirit Fingerz, with DJ Tamuka, who helped launch his career, guiding the project. The site gave the album eight out of ten.
Number one at home, sold out abroad
Rolling Stone Africa reports that Different Root debuted at number one in Zimbabwe. Mercy passed 600,000 views on YouTube, and Ma1 entered the YouTube Zimbabwe weekly chart at number eight. Two days after release he headlined in Wolverhampton on 30 August, a show Rolling Stone Africa describes as sold out.
The features are a plan, not a favour
The most interesting part of Different Root is how deliberate it is. Nutty O told Rolling Stone Africa that the Fido and Bugle collaborations were strategic, a way into Nigerian playlists and into core reggae audiences. He sees the UK diaspora as a bridge to wider audiences rather than an end point.
That's a clear change from how many Zimbabwean artists have treated the diaspora, as a lucrative touring circuit for the same fans who already listen at home. The Voice, the British Black newspaper, gave him a feature interview around the release, a sign the approach is getting him in front of UK audiences, not only Zimbabweans abroad.
He has form here. Mustard Seed carried Ghana's Stonebwoy and Jamaica's Demarco, he has appeared on reggae singer Etana's Grammy-nominated album Reggae Forever, and The Voice puts his catalogue past 100 million streams.
The diaspora economy he's plugging into
The UK circuit for Zimbabwean music keeps getting bigger. Nehanda Radio reported that ZimLinkUp moved to Birmingham's New Bingley Hall this year, a venue holding up to 4,000 people, with remittance companies as sponsors. Diaspora events are now big enough that money-transfer firms want their names on them.
That creates an opportunity and a risk. The opportunity is a paying audience abroad that can fund bigger productions and tours. The risk is getting comfortable playing to Zimbabweans overseas and never reaching anyone else. Different Root is Nutty O's attempt to use the first to avoid the second.
Why it closes our month
Across this series, the same theme kept coming up. Stone carvers in Bulawayo looking for local buyers, a Masvingo rapper pitching his city to tourists, a poet switching to English to reach Jamaica, producers banding together under one compilation. All of them are working out how to be heard beyond the room they started in.
Nutty O's answer is the most developed of the lot: take care of the home audience, pick features that open doors instead of just adding names, and treat the diaspora as a starting point for going further. Whether Different Root becomes a genuine international breakthrough will depend on what the next year of touring and playlisting looks like. But on the evidence of its first month, it's the clearest export plan we've seen from a local artist this year.
Sources
- Nutty O is taking Zimbabwean music beyond its borders, Rolling Stone Africa
- Album in Focus: Different Root by Nutty O, Greedysouth
- Nutty O new album takes a Different Root, The Voice
- Different Root, Nutty O on Audiomack
- ZimLinkUp 2026 gears up to deliver biggest edition yet in Birmingham, Nehanda Radio
