{
  "slug": "gqom",
  "name": "Gqom",
  "aliases": [
    "gqom oh",
    "durban sound",
    "sgubhu"
  ],
  "description": "Durban's answer to kwaito: a broken, off-grid drum pattern with no four-to-the-floor kick at all, built on cracked software and traded by WhatsApp. Raw, minor-key and physically overwhelming on a big system.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "Durban, South Africa",
    "year": 2011
  },
  "lineage": [
    {
      "genre": "kwaito",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/kwaito/",
      "inherited": "The inheritance and the argument with it. Gqom keeps kwaito's chanted vocal and township-tempo weight while throwing out the steady kick entirely, which is why Durban producers spent years being told what they made was not music."
    },
    {
      "genre": "dancehall",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/dancehall/",
      "inherited": "The distribution. A gqom track circulates as a bare rhythm that MCs and dancers claim, spread hand to hand rather than through a label, exactly as a riddim moves through Kingston."
    }
  ],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 120,
    "max": 130
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-29",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/gqom/",
  "trackCount": 7,
  "curatedBy": [
    {
      "name": "The Waxonia Desk",
      "url": "https://waxonia.com/artist/the-desk/",
      "pickCount": 6
    }
  ],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "dj-lag--ice-drop",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/dj-lag--ice-drop/",
      "title": "Ice Drop",
      "artist": "DJ Lag",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/dj-lag/",
      "year": 2016,
      "label": "Goon Club Allstars",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Written at seventeen and the first gqom track to get a video. Three elements, no resolution, and a low end that makes the case for the whole genre in ninety seconds.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-the-hundred",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — The Hundred",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-the-hundred/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/DJ%20Lag%20Ice%20Drop",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=9ycr4BI8I94",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "babes-wodumo-featuring-mampintsha--wololo",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/babes-wodumo-featuring-mampintsha--wololo/",
      "title": "Wololo",
      "artist": "Babes Wodumo featuring Mampintsha",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/babes-wodumo-featuring-mampintsha/",
      "year": 2016,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Gqom's first mainstream hit and the moment Durban's underground reached national radio. The vocal is a taunt, and the beat refuses to help her out even once.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-gqom-out-of-durban",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — Out of Durban",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-gqom-out-of-durban/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Babes%20Wodumo%20featuring%20Mampintsha%20Wololo",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=bu_hL0iBUmI",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "rudeboyz-featuring-td-snax--mercedes",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/rudeboyz-featuring-td-snax--mercedes/",
      "title": "Mercedes",
      "artist": "Rudeboyz featuring TD Snax",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/rudeboyz-featuring-td-snax/",
      "year": 2015,
      "label": "Goon Club Allstars",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The record that carried the sound to London. Sparse to the point of severity, and the first many people outside South Africa heard of any of this.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-gqom-out-of-durban",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — Out of Durban",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-gqom-out-of-durban/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Rudeboyz%20featuring%20TD%20Snax%20Mercedes",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=CuCPNuBzWBI",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "distruction-boyz-featuring-benny-maverick-and-dladla-mshunqisi--omunye",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/distruction-boyz-featuring-benny-maverick-and-dladla-mshunqisi--omunye/",
      "title": "Omunye",
      "artist": "Distruction Boyz featuring Benny Maverick and Dladla Mshunqisi",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/distruction-boyz-featuring-benny-maverick-and-dladla-mshunqisi/",
      "year": 2017,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The genre's biggest commercial moment, and a credit dispute: DJ Lag pursued the case and won a songwriting credit. Both facts belong in the record's history.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-gqom-out-of-durban",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — Out of Durban",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-gqom-out-of-durban/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Distruction%20Boyz%20featuring%20Benny%20Maverick%20and%20Dladla%20Mshunqisi%20Omunye",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=26-dVJa5Ejc",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "dj-lag--trip-to-new-york",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/dj-lag--trip-to-new-york/",
      "title": "Trip to New York",
      "artist": "DJ Lag",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/dj-lag/",
      "year": 2017,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Released first over WhatsApp, which is how most gqom actually travels. The most exportable thing Durban made, and it never needed a label to prove it.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/DJ%20Lag%20Trip%20to%20New%20York",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=RPvvJ-N9CGw",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "griffit-vigo--come-to-durban",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/griffit-vigo--come-to-durban/",
      "title": "Come to Durban",
      "artist": "Griffit Vigo",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/griffit-vigo/",
      "year": 2016,
      "label": "Gqom Oh!",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "From the compilation that gave the sound a name abroad. Vigo is the producer's producer here — harder, stranger and less interested in a hook than anyone else on this list.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-gqom-out-of-durban",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — Out of Durban",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-gqom-out-of-durban/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Griffit%20Vigo%20Come%20to%20Durban",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=z-aonW6QHeI",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "trackKey": "sho-madjozi--john-cena",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/sho-madjozi--john-cena/",
      "title": "John Cena",
      "artist": "Sho Madjozi",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/sho-madjozi/",
      "year": 2019,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Gqom's rhythmic ideas turned into outright pop, in Xitsonga, about a wrestler. Included because a genre that could not do this would have stayed in Durban.",
      "alsoOn": [
        {
          "kind": "curator",
          "slug": "the-desk-gqom-out-of-durban",
          "name": "The Waxonia Desk — Out of Durban",
          "url": "https://waxonia.com/selection/the-desk-gqom-out-of-durban/"
        }
      ],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Sho%20Madjozi%20John%20Cena",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=H9bGITkIHmM",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}