“Phakishani, Phakishani, Phakishani/ Ziph’ iy’khwama/ Phakishanix3/ Siyahamba manje/ Phakishani x3/ Siy’ eDurban.” This chant, which loosely translates as “Pack your bags, we are going to Durban,” echoes the first few seconds of T’zozo En Professor’s 2006 track Woz’ eDurban. These lines, sung in Zulu and with conviction, felt like an open invitation to the city. The song grandly introduced the rest of the country to Durban’s take on kwaito, which at the time was predominantly produced by artists in Johannesburg.
“Yas’bona thina sibuy’ eDurban/ Mawufun’ uGroove (a) nathi, woz’ eDurban/ Mawufun’ ukuJaiva, woz’ eDurban, yasizwa isghubhu saseDurban,” the hook went (You see us? We come from Durban. If you want to party, come to Durban. If you want to dance, come to Durban. Are you hearing this sound from Durban?).
These boasts about one’s neighbourhood were what you would expect from Soweto-bred kwaito acts. The duo proudly represent their city throughout the song, featuring a guest appearance by Durban’s Finest (DJ Tira and DJ Sox). They shout out other Durban DJs such as Bongz and Siyanda. The track marked a shift in the genre, both geographically and sonically, while the music video provided a visual snapshot of the fun times the city has to offer.
“The original beat was a song from overseas,” Steve Bugs’s remix of Freaks’ The Creeps, DJ Sox tells me. “We started blending those beats with our chants and club lingos.” The track initially appeared on Durban’s Finest 2005 V2 compilation album The Finest Level. It had become a hit in Durban’s underground club scene and partygoers started to add their own flare and interpretations to it.
“We then ended up doing our own beats and that gave birth to Durban kwaito,” says Sox, who was at the helm of hosting parties in Durban during the early 2000s.
Durban’s take on kwaito was, at its core, inspired by house music. Coined by Zakes Bantwini, the term “Durban kwaito music” distinguished what the city brought to the genre. “The [main] difference between kwaito and Durban kwaito was basically the speed,” says DJ Sox. “Traditional kwaito was at 95 beats per minute (BPM) and would go up to 100-105, at most. When Durban kwaito came, it went straight to 125. That tempo was mostly heard on house music at that time. It was even before we ventured into singing, we were just DJs.”
While there wasn’t much difference in the lyrics, Durban kwaito’s content was more lighthearted. The artists often emphasised having fun and living care free.
At 125 BPM, Durban producers revitalised the sound of kwaito, which was in a decline in the mid-2000s. House music was making a mark with audiences. With Shana and Black Coffee’s 2002 self-titled debut solo project, the city made its bid as a notable contender. DJ Bongz’s 2005 debut No Retreat. No Surrender, featuring the hit track Thina Sobabili, went on to crystallise the city’s ability to make original crossover hits just in time for the Durban kwaito explosion.
The formation of the subgenre and the establishment of independent labels such as Afrotainment and Mayonie Productions also stemmed from the pioneer’s resistance to relocating to Joburg to make it in the music industry. “I was like I wanted to do it here, so I opened my company in Durban because I felt like we needed to grow different industries in different cities,” Bantwini said in a 2015 interview.
In a short space of time, the movement birthed generational stars such as T’zozo En Professor, L’vovo Derrango, DJ C’ndo, Big Nuz, Fisherman and many more. It spawned classic hit records such as Amantombazane, Resista, Uyoy'sholo Wena, and Umlilo, to name a few.
“I think for me, [it’s] the energy that we had. Everybody that was in the forefront in terms of pushing the sound had the right attitude,” says DJ Tira. “From Zakes Bantwini and L’vovo, DJ Bongz, Big Buz, we were all for it to win. We were proud of the sound and the city that we were representing. The love that we received helped us. The support we got made us succeed.”
Such slogans as “fact Durban rocks” made people curious and want to find out for themselves if Durban truly rocked. The city became South Africa’s alternative entertainment hub.
After our sit-down with Durban’s Finest, we headed to Umlazi, where we were treated to sets by the duo and DJ Bongz. During their performance, Tira and Sox played recent gqom tracks, while the Gwaragwara hit-maker opted for nostalgic house tracks such as DJ Tira’s Big Nuz and Joocy-assisted 2012 track Summertime, testament to the city’s knack for producing timeless records.
While the house and Durban kwaito scene were basking in the glory of achievements circa 2010, there was a brewing sound in the city’s underground. Teenage producers from the townships in and around Durban were pioneering a new sound categorised by hard-hitting, offbeat kick drums, haunting melodies, and minimal vocalisations.
The sound grew as the producers started to find creative ways to share the music via Bluetooth, WhatsApp, and file-sharing sites such as KasiMP3. They would also print out CDs and hand them to taxis that travel in and around the city. And like that, the sound travelled around the city and beyond. Smartphone users aided this spread by circulating videos of people dancing. Much like most popular local genres, gqom had its own signature dances and ways of dancing, commonly known as ukubhenga.
From KwaSisi in KwaMashu to other landmark spots such as Spank, 58, 101 and Havana, the unfiltered sound of gqom was the soundtrack of the early 2010s. “[We kept hearing] about this sound that was causing havoc ekasi, yho yho yho!,” says Tira. “One of the songs that pioneered the gqom movement [in the mainstream] was DJ C’ndo and DJ Lusiman’s Yamnandi Into. The raw cut [of the song] was Wamnandi uQoh [which spoke about how good ecstasy was], but we had to clean it up. That was us commercialising this sound so we can build it up.”
As time passed, gqom morphed and developed several styles as more producers experimented. Efforts to commercialise steered it in different directions. Sox speaks of how they had to adjust to make it “radio friendly and for older people to understand it”. As a result of these efforts and slight stigmatisation due to its close association with illegal substances, some producers started to disassociate themselves from the word and the core sound of gqom around the mid-2010s.
A style commonly known as isgubhu (the bass or the drum) broke the sound nationally and in some parts of the continent. Distruction Boyz and Dlala Thukzin, through their work on Babes Wodumo’s 2016 debut album Gqom Queen, Vol. 1, were at the forefront. This opened the sound up to upcoming and established producers/DJs from all over the country to be able to play, experiment and collaborate with gqom acts.
Internationally, the sound’s footprint gained more traction. Many of the titans released songs with European labels and toured worldwide. Some songs broke out globally. For instance, Lag’s 2018 track Drumming landed him a placement on Beyoncé’s My Power. Global broadcasts such as Boiler Room x Ballantine's True Music, one of the most influential brands in dance music, which claims to reach 283-million viewers every month, helped.
Ma_A (Andile Mazibuko), KB (Franco Makhathini) and Chase (Njabulo Sibiya) formed the group Omagoqa after starting out as Unticipated Soundz. They pioneered a new gqom wave they called uThayela (corrugated iron) — a rougher sound with a harder baseline that’s made for clubs — and Is’qinsi, which they describe as uThayela infused with electronic sounds generally associated with “foreign-based electronica elements”.
If you listen to what Distruction Boyz is doing now, I call it ‘gqom tech’ because it has that international feel with a bit of tech and electro in it. It’s spreading into other genres and opening more doors for other kids
— DJ Sox
The trio is part of the new wave of gqom artists who have been pushing the sound despite South Africa’s notorious reputation of having a five-year genre cycle within its competitive mainstream. Even after its first decade of existence, the sound remains potent and a form of expression for the youth. It reflects their daily lives. It represents their freedom to live and to choose their community. While gqom is commercially less viable since the pandemic waned, it has remained prominent in some spaces and continues to evolve.
DJ Sox says that when gqom is discussed, one must also mention its different iterations. “Right now, we have people like Thukzin who can collaborate with the likes of uKabza [De Small] by mixing gqom and amapiano,” he says. “If you listen to what Distruction Boyz is doing now, I call it ‘gqom tech’ because it has that international feel with a bit of tech and electro in it. It’s spreading into other genres and opening more doors for other kids to come in. The future of the sound is really exciting because you even find elements of it in other genres, and to me, that’s the legacy.”
“The sound has now matured,” King Silver of CampMasters remarks. “Styles like iDombolo, gqom gospel, isgubhu and many other variations continue to shape the future of the sound. We’re also seeing a lot of influence from amapiano with bootlegs and Three Step in terms of arrangement. Gqom has always been a style of music that has infused and taken elements or inspiration from other sounds.”
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