For years, the intersection of South African fashion, beauty, and music has been a playground for cultural innovators.
But few are pushing boundaries quite like fashion and beauty creator turned DJ Azee Green, who is using gqomtech, a high-energy fusion of underground gqom and hard-hitting electronic techno, to reshape how we experience music, identity, and public space in Mzansi.
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For Azee Green, fashion and music have always stemmed from the same creative urge. Whether experimenting with an outfit or curating a set, her goal is to push boundaries, empower marginalised communities, and challenge existing norms.
Through her groundbreaking audio-visual series, OURS, she takes full DJ setups, fashion crews, and production teams out of traditional nightlife venues, placing them directly into everyday environments, from live taxi ranks and container salons to old hostels and township street corners.
Roots in Cape Town’s underground
Behind her growing platform lies a deep, personal connection to local soundscapes. Growing up as a private boarding-school student living in the hood, Azee Green was introduced to gqom through her older sister, who frequented overnight raves across Cape Town.
Tagging along introduced her to isjokojoko, the raw underground gqom sound that became both her connection to her heritage and a rebellion against mainstream pop culture.
Today, that rebellious spirit drives her exploration of gqomtech. By uniting the heavy electronic drums and hypnotic rhythms of gqom and techno through a distinctly South African lens, she aims to channel Mzansi’s youth energy while reshaping nightlife culture into a safer, more responsible experience free from compromising self-care or security.
The genesis of OURS
The inspiration behind OURS took shape while Azee Green studied music production at Bridges for Music Academy in Langa, a township renowned for musical icons like Brenda Fassie and Professor Dizu Plaatjies.
Immersed in a community where music historically served as a vehicle for liberation and cultural preservation, she realised her work had to extend beyond the individual. OURS emerged as her commitment to honouring that legacy, bringing music out of conventional DJ booths so it can actively interact with the real-world spaces and people that birthed it.
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Central to this movement is bringing “the girls, the queers, the fashion, and the perfume” into spaces historically dominated by hyper-masculinity.
While salons have long served as liberating sanctuaries for women and people from the LGBTQ+ community to gather and process life, environments like taxi ranks and hostels carry different dynamics. Rather than retreating from these spaces, Azee Green insists on reclaiming presence within them unapologetically.
Reclaiming space and creating community legacy
The inaugural instalment in a live Langa taxi rank proved to be a bold, transformative exchange. Commuters and taxi drivers stopped, danced, and engaged with the production, treating the crew not as outsiders performing at them, but as community members bringing celebratory energy into everyday spaces.
For Azee Green and her community, “blooming” in Mzansi means demonstrating an unrivalled perseverance to take up space, loudly, safely, and proudly, because of their environments rather than despite them.
By prioritising intentionality over the fast pace of social media content creation, Azee Green allows the OURS series to evolve slowly and organically.
While future pop-up locations remain a closely guarded surprise, each site is chosen to highlight a specific story, tension, or conversation. Ultimately, OURS stands as a powerful reminder for South Africans that culture is not merely something handed down to us; it is something we have the power to participate in, challenge, and actively create.
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