We caught up with Durban creatives Que DJ and ASVNTE to talk music, fashion, identity and the cultural connections between Durban and Los Angeles.
Great culture rarely exists in isolation. It is built through exchange, between cities, sounds, people, ideas and different ways of seeing the world. Rémy Martin’s Two Cities. One Spirit. campaign explored that idea through the cultural connection between Durban and Los Angeles, bringing together music, nightlife, fashion, hospitality and creative expression. Over the course of the campaign, that spirit moved from World Cognac Day through the Two Cities Tour before reaching its defining chapter during the Durban July weekend.
At the centre of that journey were Que DJ and ASVNTE, two cultural voices whose practices extend beyond music. Through their sound, personal style, taste and the communities they move through, both offer distinct perspectives on how culture is created, shared and continually reinterpreted. For Que DJ, culture begins close to home. His creative language has been shaped by pop culture, fashion, art and the visual worlds that surround him, but it is Durban’s own sonic DNA that remains central to his practice.
“Gqom is basically in Durban’s DNA,” he says, tracing the sound back to underground parties, end-of-school-term celebrations and even the city’s minibus taxis. Those everyday environments helped shape a sound that would eventually travel far beyond Durban.
His role, as he sees it, is partly about taking that sound with him.
Que DJ has used international stages to introduce Gqom to new audiences, while simultaneously creating space for emerging talent at home. His work through Emagogogweni reflects that commitment to building platforms for new voices and keeping his ear close to the ground.
“My ear is always on the ground for new talent and new music,” he explains. Even when travelling, he makes time to connect with local people and their music, using those encounters to understand the cultural temperature of a place before translating that energy into his sets.The result is less about simply playing music and more about creating a journey.
“When I curate my sets I am looking to take people on a Gqom odyssey,” he says. “It’s always rewarding when the crowd gets it.”
That instinct for connection is also central to ASVNTE’s approach, although his cultural language operates across a broader spectrum of sound, fashion, identity and community. For him, influence is difficult to isolate to one source. He describes his outlook as inherently interconnected, shaped by South African creativity, his city and the people around him.
“I can’t pinpoint just one,” he says of his influences.
“My South African roots and our nation’s innate creativity have significantly shaped who I am.”
His city has played an equally important role, helping develop his ear not only for music, but for fashion, style and culture in its many forms. And when asked where he continues to find inspiration, his answer is simple: “Also the kids, listen to the kids.”
That openness feeds directly into the community he has built around his own identity. What began as the music tag “IS THST YOU ASVNTE” has grown into something much larger, a phrase that has become familiar within his community and, in his words, “almost become its own language.”People don’t simply reference the name; they identify with what it represents.
For ASVNTE, that is where cultural influence becomes meaningful.
“Asvnte has become more than just a name, it’s a community, a feeling and a way of moving through culture”, he says.
That philosophy also informs the way he approaches music. Rather than separating genres into distinct categories, he sees hip-hop, house, amapiano and everything around them as part of the same larger cultural ecosystem, connected through energy, people and expression. The same fluidity exists in his approach to fashion.
“Fashion is another form of expression for me, just like music and art,” he says. “Fashion is art.”
For ASVNTE, what he wears is closely tied to his emotional state and the music around him. Getting dressed can begin with a feeling, a song or a particular energy and become another way of communicating without saying anything at all. “You look good, you feel good, you do good.”
That relationship between sound, style and identity is also where the connection between Durban and Los Angeles begins to reveal itself. While the two cities exist within very different cultural contexts, Que DJ sees a shared foundation in their underground scenes. Both cities have developed cultural movements from the ground up, with underground communities playing an important role in shaping the sounds that eventually become globally recognised.
ASVNTE sees a similar connection through the idea of fearless self-expression. For him, both cities represent communities that use sound as a form of identity, music that carries the character of the people and places it comes from. He points to the 808 as an example: a sound that can exist within Gqom, but whose energy can equally be expressed through fashion, style and visual culture.
“It becomes bigger than just music or fashion,” says ASVNTE. “It’s a story about who you are, where you come from and how you’ve grown into the person you are today.”
For Que DJ and ASVNTE, those moments were not simply about occupying the same spaces. They reflected something deeper about the way culture moves, between people, places and disciplines. ASVNTE believes that none of us truly own culture. Instead, creatives are fortunate enough to participate in a much longer journey, one that was already being shaped before them and will continue long after.
For Que DJ, that responsibility exists in the work itself: keeping an ear open for new talent, creating platforms for emerging artists and taking the sounds of Durban into rooms and audiences that may never have encountered them otherwise.
Two Cities. One Spirit
Ultimately, Two Cities. One Spirit. is a story about that shared movement, the way different influences can meet without losing their individuality. Que DJ carries the rhythm of Durban’s underground into new spaces, building bridges between Gqom, emerging talent and global audiences. ASVNTE moves between music, fashion, community and self-expression, creating a language that belongs as much to the people around him as it does to himself.
Different practices. Different perspectives. Different ways of translating culture. But one shared understanding: culture grows richer when different influences come together.
