The 7 best Gqom tracks of all time
Gqom
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.
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Babes Wodumo featuring Mampintsha / Wololo
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.
Rudeboyz featuring TD Snax / Mercedes
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.
Distruction Boyz featuring Benny Maverick and Dladla Mshunqisi / Omunye
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.
DJ Lag / Trip to New York
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.
Griffit Vigo / Come to Durban
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.
Sho Madjozi / John Cena
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.