June 25, 2024 at PDT
THE REBELLION
“Gqom started as a sound for taxis, actually,” South African sonic pioneer DJ Lag tells Apple Music. “It was being played in taxis. And even now, if you go to taxi ranks, you’ll hear all the taxis are playing gqom sounds. In South Africa, the taxis have their own culture; they have big sound systems. [As a driver] if you have the big sound system, you’re going to get more customers. And that was another way we used to push our music.”
Like the minibus taxi system that helped gqom artists get their sound out there, DJ Lag remains a driving force behind the growth of the scene, and with his 2024 album THE REBELLION, he presents the next chapter of the drum-heavy sound’s evolution. “I think if I stop [producing gqom], a lot of people will just stop,” Lag explains. “It’s my responsibility to keep pushing stuff. The style I’m trying now is gqom mixed with amapiano. And I just had to call it THE REBELLION. It’s slow like ’piano, but the beats—you can hear it’s gqom. I like experimenting a lot, and I think that’s how most of the producers are moving right now in Durban. It’s a mix of Afro-tech, but you can still hear the bass and the darkness of the song—so you can hear it’s two different sounds. On the album, we have three-step, we have proper gqom—like the old style—we have gqom with hip-hop, and we also have gqom mixed with amapiano.” Below, he talks through key tracks from the album.
“Iza Ngamandla” (with Sykes & Vanco)
“It’s a mixture of two genres. It’s three-step, but it changes and becomes darker in the middle, and then it goes back to Afro-tech-ish. And Sykes is really good with the vocals. I made it number one because it’s chilled, but it’s talking about how hot the album is. When they say ‘Iza Ngamandla,’ they’re saying, ‘This album is coming with force.’”
“Hade Boss” (feat. K.C Driller) (with Mr Nation Thingz)
“I started producing that style around 2021, trying to link gqom with ’piano, but I don’t think I was really good at it. In 2023, that’s when I started perfecting the sound. We sent three beats that are made with K.C Driller to unleash things, and one of them was the one he used for ‘Hade Boss.’ I thought he was going to release that song, but he was like, ‘No, you release it.’ I was like, 'OK, cool—but I don’t know when.’ Then he started doing this challenge on TikTok and the song started growing. We just uploaded a small clip of the song, and some guy who was a dancer started dancing using the song. Then everybody started doing it. It was crazy. So that’s why I wanted to release more music which is on that style. Another song called ‘Bamba’ is the same style but with no vocals, just a beat.”
“Trouble” (feat. Novaboy)
“That’s the new wave. That’s the new wave that these new guys are making in Durban. Novaboy is one of the new good producers from Clermont, where I come from.”
“Yebo” (feat. Thobeka)
“I made the beat around December [2023], and it’s one of the songs I’ve been playing in all my gigs. The vocals, the first part, the deep voice, it’s K.C Driller. What is he saying is something that we always shout in the club. It’s something everybody just likes to shout in the club, and we just created a song out of it. I used to always use that thing on the mic when I’m DJing and the crowd would say [it] back. So now I’m playing the actual song, everybody’s going crazy when I’m playing it. It’s nice to bring that live element into a song.”
“Oke Oke” (with Jazz Alonso)
“I was on tour, and I was working with different producers. That’s when I went to [producer] GG’s studio. Then Jazz came along, and one of the beats that we made that day she jumps on. It’s about love.”
“Kwenzakalan” (feat. BIxckie, Leodaleo & Dezzodigo)
“This is the second song that I tried mixing gqom with trap. Dezzo is another producer, and Leodaleo is an MC—so it was Blxckie and Leo on the vocals. And Blxckie is one of the biggest hip-hop artists here in South Africa. He’s amazing. Blxckie is crazy, man. He is crazy. He wrote that verse, he just listened to the beat for two minutes, and then he was like, ‘Yeah, record.’ And he was like, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa, fast. Every time [I’m in the studio with another artist], I know they’re doing a different sound, but I always try to put my sound with their sound, trying to fit in. Because I really love hip-hop, but I don’t want to do proper hip-hop. I want to mix it with my style.”
“Yeyeyeyeye” (feat. Sane & Charlie Magandi)
“We did that song and we were coming from a club. I just decided, ‘You know what, let’s just go to the studio.’ I made the beat. While I was making the beat, my friends behind me, they were like doing those chants, ‘Ye ye ye ye ye ye.’ We just decided, ‘You know what, let’s just put this thing on the beat.’ And yeah, we just left it like that, because there’s no verse on that song, there’s nothing. It’s just the chants and the beat. Sane’s not singing—she’s just saying that boys are dogs. I’ve seen people pointing at each other when I’m playing that song. This one causes trouble.”
“Umlilo” (feat. Holy Alpha & Kay Faith) (with YoungstaCPT & Dee Koala)
“This one is gqom trap. All the artists who are on that song are from Cape Town. I was doing a show when I was there and I just brought everyone to the studio. They have their own style in Cape Town, their own gqom style. These new guys who are rapping on gqom, their beats are also insane and different. Everybody has his own taste, every province has their own style. Even in East London, they have their own style. I know all of the producers, actually. We share music.”
“Hade Boss (Re-Up)” (feat. Mr Nation Thingz, Kamo Mphela, 2woshort, Xduppy & K.C Driller) (with DJ Maphorisa & Robot Boii)
“For the remix, I added the best vocalists and MCs from Joburg who are doing amapiano. Maphorisa is well known, he’s one of the kings of amapiano. 2woshort has really big songs. And Kamo Mphela is just amazing. And Robot Boii. Xduppy produced that.”
13 Tracks
