Here's Your Essential Gqom Playlist From DJ Lag & Rudeboyz

DURBAN—South African producers DJ Lag and Rudeboyz are pioneers of gqom, a genre that's mainly existed in the Durban underground but has been spreading like wildfire in the form of low-quality MP3s.

The raw, electronic dance genre is making its way into the mainstream with the help of DJ Lag, who's also known as the 'gqom king,' and the likes of Babes Wodumo, who dropped one of the hottest and most popular singles in South Africa last year.

Rudeboyz and DJ Lag have been constantly spreading the good word of gqom in the international scene, as well, as they were most recently part of Red Bull Music Academy's GQOM: Durban → NYC event in the U.S.

While in town, the producers stopped by our OkayAfrica headquarters to tell us about their favorite gqom tracks which, naturally, include a lot of their own compositions.

Scroll through Rudeboyz and DJ Lag's gqom playlist below.

Rudeboyz "Gqom Originators"

The inspiration for this song was hearing a new track playing at clubs in Durban that just had Afro-house drums. We wanted to match those African drums with the gqom style. That's why it has trumpets in there, we tried to merge traditional African sounds with gqom.—Rudeboyz

DJ Lag "iThuna"

This was the first banger of a track that made me popular in Durban.—DJ Lag

Rudeboyz "Japanese Sax"

This one has a lot of Japanese elements. It just kind of happened when we were looking through a variety of sounds to use in our tracks and add to our gqom style.—Rudeboyz

DJ Lag "Ice Drop"

I chose this track because it's the first track I made a music video for.—DJ Lag

Okmalumkoolkat "Gqi" feat. Amadando

This one has new infusion thats breaking in South Africa, it's gqom but it also has trap influences, it's 'gqom trap.' We produced it as well.—Rudeboyz

DJ Lag "XXX"

This track got me playing in the bigger clubs like Club 101 [in Durban]. This was a big track in 2014. DJ Tira hit me up about it.—DJ Lag

Rudeboyz - 02 Masive Bang (Club Mix)

Basically, this was a track I did for Masive Q when we were at his crib. It was a special song for him since we've been in this for so long.—Andile T of Rudeboyz

Rudeboyz - Madness Orig Mix [110987]

The songs has a lot of chords, basically again trying to match African sounds to gqom but putting everything in an afro-tech mood.—Rudeboyz