A South African DJ by the name of DJ Snow SA aka Shaun Simons, from Macassar in the Western Cape, has already released an unofficial yaadt remix of English singer/songwriter Adele’s new song, “Easy On Me”, that came out on Friday.
Loosely translated, “yaadt” (usually spelt jaard) is a yard or backyard in Afrikaans.
But in South Africa, specifically Cape Town, yaadt is a fusion of old-school soul with high-tempo house beats and is quickly gaining recognition in international clubs.
“I saw all the hype on the social media platforms with the new release coming today, so I actually went on to Adele’s YouTube channel to listen and to hear if it would be a nice, catchy song with a nice chorus that all the people could sing along to,” DJ Snow told the African News Agency (ANA) on Friday.
“Then I started to fit it to a beat that I made, to hear if it would work. After that I put up a preview on TikTok to see how the people would react and I was quite surprised to get so much feedback on it that I decided that I will finish the track.”
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♬ Easy On Me DJ Snow SA Bootleg - DJ Snow SA
DJ Snow, who has been a DJ for eight years, said he then finished the track and uploaded it to his YouTube page – and that’s when the remixed version went viral.
Yaadt is the music in which communities find escapism. The music is often played and enjoyed at backyard parties.
Yaadt music elicits imagery of family, friends, togetherness, laughter, dancing and joy in communities, according to Beat Portal.com.
Baydu Adams, programme manager at Algoa FM in Gqeberha, said “yaadt” is the term they used for yard on the Cape Flats.
“We would have parties in the yard, sitting on crates, having a braai and there’s a cassette deck or DJ playing music, and that’s the ‘geselligheid’ (jovial spirit) of the coloured culture,” Adams explained.
“I think back in the day there was a tribal beat back in the clubs and dance crews, that was very popular and some DJs would take the tribal beat and play it over the vocals of slow songs, and I think that’s how it started.”