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Aged just 21, in the closing months of 2016 DJ Lag made his international live music debut and since then he has played an impressive number of international dates (RedBull SonarDome at Sonar Barcelona, MELT Festival in Germany, Afropunk Atlanta, London’s Jazz Café). Other highlights that showcase DJ Lag’s deep-seated creativity include the video for “Ice Drop” being shown alongside a range of electronic music icons in Electronic: From Kraftwerk to The Chemical Brothers, a landmark exhibition being hosted by London Design Museum from mid-2020 to early 2021
Although rightfully known as “the king of gqom”, DJ Lag is a sonic explorer unafraid of moving across boundaries of sound and geography and easily capable of standing alongside the world’s biggest stars. The most high-profile of the latter was when he produced “My Power” for Beyoncé’s 2019 Grammy-nominated album The Lion King: The Gift (the companion album to the CGI remake of The Lion King). In a significant recognition of DJ Lag’s reach and musical innovation, “My Power” – which features Nija, Busiswa, Yemi Alade, Tierra Whack and Moonchild Sanelly – was also included on Beyoncé’s recently released, critically acclaimed Black Is King visual album and its trailer.
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Pitchfork described him as an “international ambassador for the nerve-shredding thrills of gqom.” Releasing on February 18th 2022, his debut full-length, Meeting with the King, is the sound of Gqom 2.0 that sees DJ Lag manifesting his recognition of gqom and Amapiano as sonic siblings, and drawing on Afro House and Afro Tech. On the back of a slate of superb singles, in the months leading to its release the album was being described as “nothing short of a grand entrance fit for royalty” (Crack Magazine) and as seeming “like it could be not only career defining but genre defining, as the gqom hero hooks up with collaborators across scenes and continents” (Resident Advisor)
