Gqom Pioneer DJ LAG on EDC 2025 | World Massive
Gqom pioneer DJ LAG joins “World Massive” for an exclusive interview and live set ahead of EDC 2025, while DJ and host d.painter delivers a soulful amapiano set — live on KPFK Radio in Los Angeles and San Diego.
*this transcript has been edited for context and fluidity
d.painter: It's d.painter, right here on World Massive, bringing you your weekly dose of modern global music. It's not often we get a king and royalty visiting the show, but we have an actual king of his genre, straight out of South Africa, reconnecting with the homie, DJ LAG. What's going on, man?
DJ LAG: How are you? I'm good, man, how are you?
d.painter: Doing all right, doing all right, man. So it's been a few [years]. Last time we connected was for the Grammys, I believe early in 2020, literally a month before the world just locked down, right?
DJ LAG: Yep, I remember that.
d.painter: Yeah, that's a big moment, but it was right on the heels of your other big moment, which was being up for a Grammy along with Beyonce for contributing to the Lion King soundtrack. And later, which was released during the pandemic, the “Black is King” video [movie], which wasn't out at the time. I'm not even sure if you knew it was even a thing [that Beyonce was producing] at the time that we did our interview, because it didn't come up, unless you kept that on the hush.
DJ LAG: I knew, but I couldn't talk about it, you know?
d.painter: Yeah, you got the Disney lawyers coming down on you. Lol
DJ LAG: Yep, yep, I had to keep quiet for two years, and every time when I think about it, I just feel like telling someone, you know? But yeah, I was good with the secret.
d.painter: Let's get up to date. You have the “Monkey Effect” single out right now and you put out the album, “Rebellion”, last year. You're showing off your diversity in terms of style, because what we mainly know you for is gqom music. Of course, this is native to South Africa. South Africa has been dominating in terms of what you do [with gqom]. Afro house…Afro house is like the in [genre of] music for DJs from Tulum to Ibiza and beyond. And then of course, something that was bubbling at the time of our last discussion, Amapiano. And then, just in terms of pop music in general, you have artists in South Africa contributing to the Afrobeats scene and you have some amazing rappers. It's a Mecca! It's a music Mecca that deserves its respect along the same lines as an Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York.
So tell us what's been developing over the last few years. Who have you been collaborating with? How have you been exposed to other styles that you've been trying to flirt with?
DJ LAG: You know, I've been trying different sounds [since] 2020 and I think this was when I got a chance to just sit down in my studio and just work on different music that I always wanted to work on without any rush and without any deadlines of releasing anything, you know. And I started playing around [with] Afro tech. I just fell in love with Afro tech, but people knew me as a gqom producer, you know. So, I always made sure that I would have at least one or two Afro tech songs on my project and then the whole project can be like a gqom album.
But yeah, and then the sound just kept changing and gqom came back in, amapiano came in, and then it just felt like, you know, I just wanted to fuse the two sounds because when amapiano came in, people started separating the music in South Africa. It was like people didn't want to work together. You know, if you were doing amapiano you can't work with a gqom producer.
d.painter: You're saying in South Africa there's a division?
DJ LAG: Yep.
d.painter: Really?
DJ LAG: Yeah, there was a thing [from] 2020 going to 2023. You know, the piano guys are just doing their own thing and the gqom guys, they're also doing their own thing. And then I just felt like, you know, let me just try and fuse these two sounds and see if it's going to work.
And yeah, that's when I started working on mixing gqom and piano, that was like 2023. And last year, that's when I released “Hade Boss” and [it] was one of the biggest piano songs from last year. And it was a surprise for me because that song, I wasn't even planning to release it.
And I sent the beat to Mr. Nation, he recorded, and then he took the song, he put the song on TikTok and then it just blew up. So I had no choice but to release it.
d.painter: Wow. Considering there's this sort of division, I want to know if you feel it's ego that's creating that? Like, “our sound is what's killing it right now.”
But also the second question would be, being that you are a gqom producer and you produced one of the bigger amapiano tracks, was there a pushback from the piano producers, hating on you for having stepped into their territory?
DJ LAG: I didn't hear anything bad from my side, but I told myself that that's going to be my last [amapiano] song that I'm going to do, you know? Because I was not even playing the song when I'm DJing because when I DJ, I only play gqom. So it's a big song, but I'm not even performing it.
I just…it didn't feel right for me, you know? So I've never done another piano song. I'm just focusing on gqom and Afro tech, which is what I was doing back in the days.
d.painter: When we talked last, I asked you which cities you go to that are ready for [gqom]. Like, they know the sound, they're educated, they're ready for it. And you said definitely across Europe, UK, London was one of those cities. I'm really happy to hear that since then, you will be at EDC Vegas this weekend, May 17th.
DJ LAG: Yep! And finally.
d.painter Big, big announcement!, DJ LAG will be in Vegas for Electric Daisy Carnival, Insomniac [Productions], the whole nine. Yo, big up, that's a major deal. I'm sure you've done other major events, but I know that [you probably have the] feeling like you [now have] been accepted more in the United States. Is that a feeling that you received when you got this booking?
DJ LAG: Sure, for sure man. Like, since last year when I got the Ibiza show, I just felt like, I think the big crowd is starting to notice what I'm doing, you know? And then this year I'm getting EDC.
So yeah, I think, I feel like every year there's someone who's seen something, you know?
d.painter: Yeah, there's growth.
DJ LAG: Growth for sure.
d.painter: That's what's up, man. Is there a consortium of South African DJs that you typically see on tour that you might be seeing that weekend at EDC?
DJ LAG: Yeah, I know Uncle Waffles is gonna be there. Who else, Da Capo’s gonna be there. All right. Who else, who else?... Yeah, it's a big lineup.
d.painter: There's been a lot coming out of your area in the last year that I've been really into. Like Mörda dropped a phenomenal album [this year]. Last year I was really into the Stogie T’s “Shallow” EP. Yanga Chief dropped a great hip-hop album. You told me you started with hip-hop.
DJ LAG: Yeah.
d.painter: And I know you talked about dabling in amapiano and all of that, but like, where's the hip-hop, man? Are we gonna get any of that coming down the line?
DJ LAG: It's still there, man. It's still there. Like every release has at least one song that has a little taste of hip-hop in it. I did a song [“Bulldozer”] with Novelist from London. And last year I did a song with Blxckie. So it's still a gqom song, but in the middle it changes into a hip-hop song. So I always love to put, you know, some taste of it in my music, you know. It's not gone, it's still there but I don't focus on it too much.
d.painter: All right. I mean, you could change your name and just drop some joints on other people's albums, like on the slide, you know.
Was hip-hop the big influence that got you into doing music?
DJ LAG: Not hip-hop, it was Kwaito. So growing up, I used to listen to Msawawa. Msawawa was the biggest Kwaito artist that came out of Claremont, where I come from. And when he became huge, he was like seven years old and when I saw him, I just saw myself. I just wanted to be like him. When I got a computer, it was a bad time where Kwaito was dying out and hip-hop was a thing. So when I got the computer, I just started producing hip-hop beats. And I was producing beats for my cousin because he's the one who actually got me the software, FL Studio.
d.painter: Okay. But I'm glad that it stuck with you. Seeing what your original inspiration was, do you see yourself incorporating more sort of organic sounds, traditional sounds into what you're doing? Doing some more experimentation? Or are you focused on getting that next banger out?
DJ LAG: Oh man, I wanna do something that has some traditional music in it because I'm from KZN (KwaZulu-Natal). And in KZN, as Zulus, we have our own genre called Maskandi. And I just wanna try something with the Maskandi artists. Something like Afro-house-ish, but it has a Maskandi sound in it.
d.painter: You dropped this “Monkey Effect” single in April.
DJ LAG: Yeah.
d.painter: You have this major appearance at EDC. So I would hope you have something dropping, kind of coinciding with that. What do we have to look forward to?
DJ LAG: So I have a single that I'm gonna drop next month. Early next month with Sir Trill and Sykes. Yeah, it's a fusion of gqom and Afro tech. And the guys who are singing, they [are] in the biggest songs of amapiano so I decided to put them on an Afro-tech beat. So this is like the first time for them.
d.painter: That's what's up, man. I don't wanna hold you too long so [is there] anything else you wanna shout out that we should be looking for?
DJ LAG: So, yeah, please come to the show for sure at EDC. I can't wait for that. And this year, I think I'm gonna be dropping two projects. It's gonna be an EP and one album at the end of the year. And I'm also planning to do my one-man show in Durban, I think around September.
d.painter: What's that? What's your one-man show?
DJ LAG: It's called Something For Claremont, where I come from. So I've been doing it for like four years now. This year I'm planning to bring it back to a soccer stadium. Because the first one I did, it was at a soccer stadium. It didn't do that good. And then I started doing the smaller shows and they're doing really good right now. So I'm planning to do another big one this year.
d.painter: Another stadium.
DJ LAG: Yeah, bro.
d.painter: You only live once, man. Might as well. If you can do it, more power to you, that's phenomenal. You got your city on lock!
Man, I appreciate you coming on the show, letting us know what's going on, dropping a mix. Hopefully we'll get you on again. But it won't take five years and a global pandemic.
DJ LAG: No, it shouldn't take five years, man. Anytime.
d.painter: All right man. DJ Lag, the king of gqom, right here on World Massive.
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Air Date 05-16-2025
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