South African Gqom producer DJ LAG released a track called Ice Drop around 2015/2016 which became one of the biggest Gqom songs in South Africa to date. Gqom is genre that originated in the city of Durban in the KwaZulu Natal Province, and Lag is renowned as one of the core pioneers of the sound.

A few days ago, DJ Megan Ryte dropped a track called ‘Culture’ featuring Will.i.am and A$AP Ferg, which upon listening appears to be an exact copy / ripoff of the Lag Original. It’s definitely not a coincidence, seeing as comments have since been disabled on the music video, as well as on Megan’s Instagram.

The ultimate irony here is the song Culture itself – it’s meant to be a commentary on stealing from black artists, and opens with the definition of “Culture Vulture” in the music video. This would have been the PERFECT opportunity to collaborate with a South African artist, in order to further the message of supporting and collabing with young, black artists.

Instead, the song becomes an example of the exact thing it claims to be against in its messaging.

Lag has addressed the issue on his Instagram account as well as on twitter:

“In our tradition respect comes first.” Ice Drop is our CULTURE – in response to DJ Megan Ryte tweeting a link to the song.

Edit: Updates Below

South African news article on the drama