Listen to Die Antwoord
Oh my god oh my god oh my god. Die Antwoord is in Los Angeles. It's a South African hiphop/rap/rave group on which I've been nomming recently. In my interview with marykae, I talked about them, and mentioned that they'd signed with Sony. That was bad information. They just signed with Interscope. Yesterday at 3:30pm, Xeni Jardin of Boingboing put up a post about her in-person interview with the group's frontman, Ninja (the frontlady, Yo-Landi Vi$$er, was sleeping in, which is unfortunate, as I want to know more about her, too-I have the sense that if we ever met, there'd be a nonzero chance of her beating me up and taking my lunch money).
Here are links to the Boingboing posts about them:
First.
Second.
Third.
Most recent.
And here's the group's site. Now this is interesting. A week ago, the background slideshow was a bunch of photos of them being glamorous, Yolandi posing in tight pants, beach scenes, etc. Now it's a short series of simple black and white photos, some including what are presumably family members.
"Zef" is Afrikaans slang for "redneck" or "white trash." Zef-rap is apparently a common thing in SA a phenomenon largely localized to Cape Town, both being zef and making fun of zef at the same time, and taking it all much more seriously than most folks here could get away with in a similar endeavor. Don't think Weird Al, think Devo. But with hip-hop/rap. The players in Die Antwoord have had previous projects and incarnations with very different personas, so yes, this is a project, and a lot of Boingboing commenters had a problem with this. The best, most concise piece of text about Die Antwoord that I've ever read, one that addresses this as well as describing the group in general, is a reponse from Xeni Jardin in the comments of the most recent BB post:I'm aware of the many prior incarnations and creative projects, and of the "this is all faaaake!" and " this is an act!" internet commentry, see the previous blog posts and RTFA. They're performers, not Wikipedia editors or priests or politicians. And thank goodness for that.
Ninja struck me as one of the most authentic, un-phony personalities I've ever encountered. Odd bits and all. He's a fascinating, charismatic, intense guy.
I don't think what they're doing fits the definition of an act or a hoax at all. I mean, cmon, it's silly. Would you shriek such accusations at, say, DEVO or David Bowie or Lady Gaga? It's a kind of popular conceptual performance art, made accessible through pop music.
Whatever they are is something they take absolutely seriously. This is not Sascha Baron Cohen doing Ali G schtick at all. I've met Sascha, and seen his act, and while I respect it-- it's just stupid to say they're the same, unless all you're doing is skimming headlines.
Whatever this is, and I don't know how to define that nor do they: it's real.
The Interscope deal is an interesting choice for an internet-made act to choose, particularly in the same week as OK Go launches their own label.
I'll be interested to see what unfolds. I don't think any of it is an accident, or something they're jumping into naïvely.
Here's some sauce:
"Enter the Ninja" video. This video gets me amped.
"Enter the Ninja" live.
"Doosdronk" live. The guy with the huge baseball cap is Jack Parow, another South African rap artist.
One of the frontman's previous personas, Maxnormal.tv.
Here are links to the Boingboing posts about them:
First.
Second.
Third.
Most recent.
And here's the group's site. Now this is interesting. A week ago, the background slideshow was a bunch of photos of them being glamorous, Yolandi posing in tight pants, beach scenes, etc. Now it's a short series of simple black and white photos, some including what are presumably family members.
"Zef" is Afrikaans slang for "redneck" or "white trash." Zef-rap is apparently a common thing in SA a phenomenon largely localized to Cape Town, both being zef and making fun of zef at the same time, and taking it all much more seriously than most folks here could get away with in a similar endeavor. Don't think Weird Al, think Devo. But with hip-hop/rap. The players in Die Antwoord have had previous projects and incarnations with very different personas, so yes, this is a project, and a lot of Boingboing commenters had a problem with this. The best, most concise piece of text about Die Antwoord that I've ever read, one that addresses this as well as describing the group in general, is a reponse from Xeni Jardin in the comments of the most recent BB post:I'm aware of the many prior incarnations and creative projects, and of the "this is all faaaake!" and " this is an act!" internet commentry, see the previous blog posts and RTFA. They're performers, not Wikipedia editors or priests or politicians. And thank goodness for that.
Ninja struck me as one of the most authentic, un-phony personalities I've ever encountered. Odd bits and all. He's a fascinating, charismatic, intense guy.
I don't think what they're doing fits the definition of an act or a hoax at all. I mean, cmon, it's silly. Would you shriek such accusations at, say, DEVO or David Bowie or Lady Gaga? It's a kind of popular conceptual performance art, made accessible through pop music.
Whatever they are is something they take absolutely seriously. This is not Sascha Baron Cohen doing Ali G schtick at all. I've met Sascha, and seen his act, and while I respect it-- it's just stupid to say they're the same, unless all you're doing is skimming headlines.
Whatever this is, and I don't know how to define that nor do they: it's real.
The Interscope deal is an interesting choice for an internet-made act to choose, particularly in the same week as OK Go launches their own label.
I'll be interested to see what unfolds. I don't think any of it is an accident, or something they're jumping into naïvely.
Here's some sauce:
"Enter the Ninja" video. This video gets me amped.
Click to view"Enter the Ninja" live.
"Doosdronk" live. The guy with the huge baseball cap is Jack Parow, another South African rap artist.
One of the frontman's previous personas, Maxnormal.tv.