* En anglais uniquement
DJ Lag is one of the pioneers of gqom, a form of tense, minimalist electronic dance music which originated in Durban, South Africa during the early 2010s. The genre became a mainstream sensation in his home country around 2016, yet at this time,
Lag was becoming more successful abroad, touring across the globe and having his music released by British record labels; his self-titled debut EP included his signature track, "Ice Drop." A few years later, he released EPs on
Hyperdub and
Diplo's Good Enuff imprint, and received major worldwide exposure through his appearance on
Beyoncé's
The Lion King: The Gift soundtrack in 2019. On
Lag's 2022 debut full-length, Meeting with the King, he fused gqom with the slower amapiano sound that sharply risen in popularity during the previous few years.
Lwazi Asanda Gwala was born in Clermont, a township of Durban, in 1995. He started producing hip-hop as a teenager, but quickly became interested in house and started making dance music. Preferring darker tracks with broken beat patterns, he connected with producers in other townships who were making similar sounds, and the gqom scene was born. His tracks started getting played at local parties, and through blogs and apps, his music spread far and wide, quickly earning attention from several U.K. DJs. In late 2016, London's Goon Club Allstars released
DJ Lag's self-titled EP, which included "Ice Drop," a track he had written when he was 17. It was the first gqom track to be made into a music video, and he played it during every show as he began touring throughout Europe and Asia, starting with a set at the Unsound Festival in Poland. He released the EP Trip to New York in 2017, initially through WhatsApp.
While gqom was becoming popular in South Africa, as
Babes Wodumo and
Okmalumkoolkat scored huge radio hits,
Lag was getting far more work overseas than at home.
Distruction Boyz released a major hit called "Omunye" which was built on an instrumental track nearly identical to
Lag's "Trip to New York," causing
Lag to pursue legal action and eventually earn a songwriting credit. Stampit, his second Goon Club Allstars EP, was released in 2018. One of its tracks, "Drumming," was reworked as "My Power," a song from
Beyoncé's
The Lion King: The Gift soundtrack (2019), which additionally featured
Nija,
Busiswa,
Yemi Alade,
Tierra Whack, and
Moonchild Sanelly. The same year,
Lag released EPs on
Hyperdub (Steam Rooms, with
Okzharp) and Mad Decent sublabel Good Enuff (Uhuru). He also recorded "Anywhere We Go," a collaboration with South African pop star
Shekhinah, for an Adidas ad campaign.
Continuing to embrace a more vocal-heavy gqom sound, as opposed to his earlier instrumentals,
Lag released tracks with NOTA ("Jungle") and
DJ Tira ("Siyagroova") in 2020. Later in the year, another one of his older tracks was lifted.
DJ Megan Ryte and
will.i.am released a single called "Culture," additionally featuring
A$AP Ferg, and were met with accusations of plagiarizing
Lag's signature track "Ice Drop." The
Black Eyed Peas founder offered an apology, and the track was subsequently removed from streaming services.
Lag released collaborations with
Lady Du and
Sinjin Hawke in 2021, as he prepared for the release of his debut full-length. Meeting with the King was issued through
Black Major and
Lag's own Ice Drop in 2022. The album was a hybrid of his signature gqom style and the slower, smoother amapiano sound which had taken over South Africa, and it featured collaborations with
Mr. JazziQ,
Babes Wodumo,
Mampintsha, and others. ~ Paul Simpson