Premiere: The Music Video for ‘Uhuru Dis’ by DJ Lag and Moonchild Sanelly is a Gqom Musical

The music video for DJ Lag and Moonchild Sanelly's "Uhuru Dis" depicts a story of two young people who aren't permitted to be together, a plot one associates with William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The twist is that our Romeo and Juliet are based in Durban and their story plays out differently. In the music video, we first encounter them on the dancefloor before they retreat away from the crowd.

"Romeo and Juliet is a universal story of love and tragedy," says DJ Lag in an email to OkayAfrica. "Chris Kets, the director, conceptualized this. We wanted to remix something that has been done over and over again and make it our own. Locate it in Durban and to the sound of gqom."

Kets tells OkayAfrica his aim was to create a form of filmmaking that is "uniquely gqom."

"The dancers (who became actors), stylists, cinematographers and artists on this shoot all come from the culture and we wanted to make something that could reflect all the forms of art that surround gqom itself—the fashion, the dancing, the stories. In this way we are looking to the future and seeing what qqom could be as a global style: Gqollywood," says Kets.

The story unfolds to a soundtrack of DJ Lag's hard-hitting production and Moonchild Sanelly's swaggering vocals.

"What we wanted to do with the video is create the first ever gqom musical in the style of gqom MCing—telling the story of a night out gone wrong. The classic tale of Romeo and Juliet fit perfectly into the world of gqom and the beach fronts of Durban. We remixed something known the world over and made it gqom," says Kets.

"Uhuru Dis" is the latest song to be highlighted as a single from DJ Lag's 2019 EP, the 6-track Uhuru. The project was a homage to Uhuru, a club in Durban that's considered the cradle of gqom.

Watch the music video for 'Uhuru Dis' below and stream DJ Lag's Uhuru EP on Apple Music, Spotify and Deezer.

DJ Lag - Uhuru Dis (feat. Moonchild Sanelly) [Official Music Video]youtu.be