Afrikaans rap-rave: Die Antwoord, "Zef Side [Beat Boy]"

Video above: Die Antwoord, "Zef Side [Beat Boy]." The band's website is here, and they're on Facebook. Via Sophisticated Funk via Clayton Cubitt, who's pals with the shooter Natasja. Bonus link: "Look In The Mirror, You Can See It's You / You Got Two Nice Boobs And A Penis Too."

After the jump: Die Antwoord - ‘Enter The Ninja’ featuring a hype-man/DJ with Progeria.

Update: Followup post here with more about the band, and about the fellow with Progeria.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Gamaroff

I went to their gig on saturday night and a friend of mine managed to shoot this vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBuB6kXNGxE
Anonymous

Ok TuesdayWeld, setting aside the “hiphop from other global cultures,” comment which could use a response on its own… With all the white musicians that have actually stolen black music, it’s seems kind of weird to me to pick Die Antwoord and Creedence to call out.

Die Antwoord’s accents seem to me to be completely their own, a bizarre mixture of dutch, south african and american that seems more than a little tongue in cheek. I mean what hiphop culture are they co-opting off with the DSOTM shorts and those dance moves? Their whole thing seems comically not ghetto-ified, and I won’t be surprised if Kanye is rocking those shorts in his next video.

As Far as Creedence goes, they are from El Cerrito not San Francisco(actually a big difference there) and as much as they were portrayed by others as swamp-rock, they really made up that sound.(or john fogerty did) There’s no soul music or louisiana music that sounds like that. Fogerty’s stacked vocals are really unique and the sound is a creative invention.

You said “plenty of cultures co-opt each other,” I think all cultures co-opt each other, that is what cultures do. That is different from having racist undertones, which seems like what you’re saying about both these bands. If there is a racist element I think that should be called out. I don’t see that here, but if you do, I’d like to read why.
Bill454

It is pathetic when Whites try to copy Black rap. You get no respect sucking up to someone else’s thing…especially morally bankrupt crap like rap.
- CANTFIGHTTHEDITE
  
  You trolls have no pride in your work anymore. Whatever happened to subtlety? Back in my day…
- Hal
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAZTLVJSlNw&feature=player_embedded
- Felix Mitchell
  
  @ Bill454 #25
  
  You seem to have missed out on a great deal of Earth’s culture. There’s great rap music done by people of various and mixed colours. Try it sometime.
- The Gunner
  
  Might want to strap on a sense of humor for this one, friend….Not a bit real but no less genius for all that — hooky, weird and District 9 level art direction. Good, good job and nice catch by Xeni…
- Anonymous
  
  bec0z we can do it much better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Anonymous
  
  this is awesome zef your nice
Anonymous

real or not, they’re great performers. talent is talent :o
dragonfrog

I am speechless with awe. Speechless.
Anonymous

get your ZEF So FResH tee at memeteeonline.com :)
Anonymous

fooken nice! Love it.
pumeza

The “hype-man/DJ with Progeria”, as far as I can tell, is an artist named Leon Botha. He has a current exhibition at the Joao Ferreira gallery in Cape Town:

http://www.joaoferreiragallery.com/

His home page is here: http://www.leonbotha.com/
powermatic

Those are nihilists, Donny, nothing to be afraid of.
Anonymous

I CANT GET ENOUGH OF THIS TRACK
pstarr

straight up hell yes. glad to know my socks can still be knocked off. thanks, bb.
Anonymous

Sacha? Is that you?
somegeye

Reminds me of the hiphopopotamus…
rose bush

i’m absolutely positively 100% compelled. now i can’t get enough
twofivesix

in case anyone missed it, i want to point out that that second song is riffing on “butterfly” by Smile.dk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wc8r5SoFkI
Anonymous

In the second song – Enter the ninja the part the girl sings. “Ay, Ay, Ay, I am your butterfly” is a rip of the SMiLE.dk song Butterfly – slightly changed from “Ay, Ay, Ay, I’m your little butterfly”

link to the SMiLE.dk video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_qwUS8Uqjg&feature=related
Anonymous

I don’t care how stupid this is…
T.H.I.S . F.U.C.K.I.N.G . R.O.C.K.!
theLadyfingers

Jack Parow.
Kameraad Mhambi

Guys, also check out http://www.mg.co.za/multimedia/2010-01-14-transcend-and-transgress

It’s about artist Leon Botha, one of the worldâ€™s longest surviving Progeria sufferers, who sometimes opens Die Antwoord’s sets as Hip Hop DJ Solarize.
Kameraad Mhambi

Read this

http://mhambi.com/2010/02/ninja-is-the-new-james-phillips/
- MichaelRN
  
  I’d like to nominate Kameraad Mhabi as the next guest blogger on BoingBoing. Your insight into contemporary SA is wonderful. More people need to know.
  
  Do I have a second? Mods, are you listening?
dammuzi

Gangsta rap? You’re doin it wrong.
- Cowicide
  
  Gangsta rap? You’re doin it wrong.
  
  So wrong it’s right, biatch
Nylund

This is odd stuff. I feel like this makes more sense within the context of District 9 than the real world.
Percy Sledge

I don’t think anybody knows for sure, apart from their mothers. Ninja’s younger than 40. He first rose to fame in the mid-90s with South African Music Award winning hip hop group The Original Evergreen, then toured the world with the critically aclaimed conceptual hip hop crew Max Normal. He then formed the cartoon hip hop group Constructus Corporation before doing Max Normal.TV, an audiovisual hip hop extravaganza. Now it’s Die Antwoord, a zef-hop crew featuring former Max Normal.TV members, DJ Hi Tek and Yo-Lande Vi$$er.
Check out The Real Estate Agents, featuring former members of Max Normal and Construcus Corporation.
Anonymous

So good I wanna learn Afrikaans, to better enjoy those crazy lyrics.
Daedalus

in case anyone missed it, i want to point out that that second song is riffing on “butterfly” by Smile.dk

They’re both riffing on MadamaButterfly, AKA 1800′s weeaboo Fantasy. ;) One of Weezer’s early albums tapped that same vein.

If you are not familiar with the erm culture they are about you won’t find half of it as funny as you should.

I might be missing a lot of it, but it seems very familiar to my rust belt hometown, just with a bit of an accent. Dudes would not seem out of place back out the B-town.
- JoshuaTerrell
  
  They must have DDR machines in Sou’frica.
Frank W

This is so many things at once… grim, sweet, a train wreck. A piss-take, but sincere all the same.
I just found out that, thankfully, I’m beyond good taste. I whole-heartedly enjoy this.
Anonymous

Seriously. I’ll say it again. This is parody. It’s Max Normal after all.

They’re doing what many before have done. Goldy Looking Chain (linked above), AliG, and Stanley Weeman:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scNLfr1EP08

Which is just incomprehensible to anyone who doesn’t have a passing acquaintance with the more deprived areas of Glasgow, but really well observed comedy/homage to anyone who does.

They’re simultaneously poking fun at and embracing South African (and specifically Afrikaans) white-trash culture which has a long history. I mean, these are people who failed to thrive when all the institutional odds were stacked massively in their favour.

They’re smart. Weird, but smart.
Anonymous

Was that Tsimfukis of youtube and 4chan fame?
- possiblyj
  
  It must be.
jm

If Chris Cunningham was famous for hip-hop videos, they’d probably look a lot like this.
I’m not much into hip-hop but this is original and disturbingly compelling.

All Up in the Interweb, yo.
VICTOR JIMENEZ

Disturbing and awesome in too many ways.
Confusing very confusing.
Anonymous

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYjENEQ-8HQ&feature=fvw
MoShang

Lekker zef!!! Front-man Waddy Jones has been a serious force in recent SA music. Check out his Max Normal project on YouTube too.
- russtolium
  
  My favorite of his is the Constructus Corporation album (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycexQvMy03k), which for the unaware was an awesome surreal hip hop/electronic concept album that tells a cyberpunk narrative through the album itself and a small hard-bound book of art.
  
  The second disc of the album wasn’t finished when it was made so they put a blank CDR at the end of the book and a link to where you could eventually download the other half of the album online for free.
  
  Super cool.
Anonymous

You have to think of Die Antwoord as a South African analogue to Goldie Lookin’ Chain …

Not to be taken seriously … cos they don’t take themselves seriously …

Look up words like ‘satire’ and you’ll see it all a little more clearly.
Anonymous

Do people actually know what they’re about? This piece by a Cape Town writer Rustum Kozain gets at it the best I think:

http://africasacountry.com/2010/02/19/is-die-antwoord-blackface/
robotbrain

more links!

Vice Mag interview – http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n9/htdocs/die-antwoord-154.php

Die Antwoord – Wat Pomp – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ij6MwqbgfQ

Die Antwoord – Rich Bitch – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5crPU43HZm0

Die Antwoord – Doosdronk – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krNM1oIVPgM
dragonfrog

Here’s one of theirs that looks much older & lower production values. Also good fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ij6MwqbgfQ&feature=related
Thac0

The videos were visually interesting to watch i guess but the music imho is nothing special or interesting.

In fact I’m wondering if this is not a joke or just a spectacle poking fun of poor, ugly, undereducated people and handicaps(TsimFuckis)? Or perhaps this is way over my head in how profound it is rendering me unable to appreciate it.
Anonymous

animated gif of the swinging dick!
http://www.watkykjy.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/PINKFLOYDJIGGIN.gif
dole

After getting hip to zef and checking out that Jack Parow video, I wholeheartedly approve. Thanks for filling in the blanks, commenters.
JuiceWar

Fascinating – and I mean that in the anthropological sense.

I used to live in SA as a kid – comfortable white english middle-class family, etc etc, and for that world these guys are a prime example of the septic appendix of human evolution… and of course my knee-jerk reaction is very much informed by my childhood prejudices! God, imagine taking them home to my my mum!!!!!

The idea of these guys earning mega bucks, being lionised by the music biz & feted by the press makes my skin a little clammy.

But it makes me understand a bit more the sometimes hysterical reaction in the US to early rap. Feel a bit hysterical myself!

Tell you what, though – impressed by the website, not the geocities HTML3 nightmare I was fearing…!
- anechoic
  
  ‘the septic appendix of human evolution’
  I love this quote!! care if I steal it?
  :)
- Mitch
  
  Are you serious, JuiceWar, or are you trying to act out some kind of caricature of bourgeois?
  
  I’m enjoying this. I gave up being too sophisticated to like stuff in my 20s.
- betenoir
  
  they’re not actually white trash, they’re more entering into the spirit of the whole benoni/belville/brakpan/cape flats ethos. Max normal used to wear neat suits and ties like office drones or bookkeepers. kind of a performance art thing.
  
  from what I’ve heard though they’re very nice people with a cute kid. Yo-landi scares me though.
- Anonymous
  
  I know! My pa-pa’s monocle would have shattered into a hundred pieces and he would have punched a hole straight through his top hat. My mum would have one of the staff faint for her I’m sure!
MichaelRN

Die Antwoord is yet another project by hyper-prolific South African artist Waddy Jones (AKA Watkin Tudor Jones and Max Normal.TV).

Looks like he has a line of plush toys, too.

http://theafricantoyshop.prosort.co.za/The%20African%20Toyshop%20Catalogue%20PDF.pdf
Frank W

Leon Botha is beautiful.
Percy Sledge

I grew up without electricity until I was 10. We were poor and living in a broken down house lent to us by a farmer. Did I ever consider myself zef. No. My father was a well respected man in our community regardless of our being poor. Fortunately I’m inteligent and got an education. Zef is a state of mind. It doesn’t mean you’re poor, it’s just more common amongst the poor. As the song Rich Bitch illustrates, you can get money but if you’re zef, you’ll stay zef. Jack Parow is probably a better example of zef perfectly capable of existing in the white middle class. Die Antwoord not only makes fun of zefness, they also celebrate and glorify it.
Joe The Wizard

I love this so much I might cry. Well, not really. But, god, I love this.
InsertFingerHere

I liked the shorts, don’t know if that chick is 12 or what.. very confuzed & scared. This gangsta-pose hand gesture stuff.. wow, there are Inuits up North here in Canada that do it too, … so much for cultural diversity.

Actually, I wonder.. outside of music, I don’t see how these people can function in the real world or otherwise contribute to the general well-being of the populace. Hard to imagine them designing buildings or create cancer treatments.
Kameraad Mhambi

“I mean, these are people who failed to thrive when all the institutional odds were stacked massively in their favour.”

You mean they didn’t immigrate back to Europe like the Brits, Portuguese and French?
- Anonymous
  
  “I mean, these are people who failed to thrive when all the institutional odds were stacked massively in their favour.”
  
  I mean the white-trash elements.
  
  White Afrikaaners, by and large, thrived.
  
  But if you or your parents were dirt-broke and living in squalor when the government of the day was literally handing out jobs to _anyone_ with a white skin, then you’re a special kind of screw-up.
Nocturnia

Dude, I really like these beats! And yes, I recognize the potential of cheese, but I really like the way the lyrics flow with the music. The wording is really good!! Where the hell is the album?
Anonymous

woa. wtf. Wtf. WTF!

that’s some seriously high production values on those videos. someone’s either got a lot of talent or a lot of cash.

or both. nicely done. keep being weird.
Felix Mitchell

I love their style but the music is not next level. Take out the arikaans accents and there’s nothing original about it. It would be fantastic if they’d actually got something amazing and were this casual and jokey about it, but they don’t. It’s just the same fun stuff loads of people make in their bedrooms, but with more character.

And then… the professional quality of their videos and website mean that they’ve put pro-level money into amateur level music, which is a bit sad. Unless they did the videos themselves or something, which’d be nice.
- tsm_sf
  
  Felix I think the whole point is how polished and club-ready these kids out of BFE are.
  
  And if you didn’t crack up when his dick started bouncing around you have a heart of stone. Or taste. One of the two.
  - Felix Mitchell
    
    @ tsm_sf
    
    Bouncing dicks are totally awesome and I loved that part of the video but it’s not music. My point is that this is a great performance, and it’s a pity the music is only average and undermines the performance. White trash kids producing average bedroom breaks is kind of what you’d expect. White trash kids tearing shit up with amazing, out of this world next level beats would be worth listening to. Loads of rappers have done this, I’m eager to see if these guys can too, but they’re not there yet.
    - Anonymous
      
      Hi Felix:
      What u said. Still, they are amatures who have a lot of personality and they would be Raveups if they would get a good producer to work on their next album.They are like those druzy African diamond beads I like to wear-you would never expect them to be faceted brilliant cut and calibrated, but just polished up a bit with a hole for stringing and they would be very glam.
- Anonymous
  
  Before something next level comes up. You need a level. This is a good start. They are paving the way for the next level. And at least it seems to me they are doing this tongue in cheek.
- Anonymous
  
  They’re a satire group.
Percy Sledge

My new favourite video, check it out.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtz011n25MY&hl=en-GB&gl=US&client=mv-google

Die Antwoord performing Doosdronk live at Ramfest 2009. The guy with the big cap is Jack Parow (the pirate from the caravan park) and the band playing with is Fokofpolisiekar (their vocalist wears the black and red sweater)

This is for those that’s still unsure if Die Antwoord is any good.
Please report what you think.
fancyfeast

It’s like gummo-rap. I was expecting one of them to start wrestling a chair.
igpajo

Looks like the American equivelant of White Trash Trailer Park culture has infected the world!

Need to go squeegee my ears now.
Anonymous

It’s strange to see this blowing up everywhere right now. I wouldn’t normally be into this music but I think the oddly beautiful lady with the squeaky voice and the she-mullet cast some sort of spell on me, so I had to find out more. And here’s what I found:
This is their previous incarnation, maxnormal.tv: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QcYxqvWCgg
Vice magazine did a very funny interview with them a couple months ago: http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n9/htdocs/die-antwoord-154.php
The guy with progeria is artist/DJ Leon Botha, who is one of the world’s oldest progeria survivors, and probably deserves a boingboing post of his own: http://www.mg.co.za/multimedia/2010-01-14-transcend-and-transgress
And another video of them partying in a taxi: http://vimeo.com/7391501
igpajo

LMAO at that thumbnail for the second video.
OH NOOO!!! HE’s Got my nose!! And yours too!!
“Gotcha Nose Motha Fooker!”
clm

What this reminded me of was J-Roc from the Canadian TV show “Trailer Park Boys”, previously mentioned on BoingBoing ( http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/24/trailer-park-boys-bi.html ) by Richard Metzger. If these three did a guest appearance on the show as long lost foreign cousins, no one would even blink.
Anonymous

These guys have been struggling a lot and have worked very hard to get where they are (even though they were part of Max Normal beforehand). They live in a really poor part of Cape Town and have been labelled as outcasts by the greater conservative Afrikaans community. I am so proud of them .. just enjoying their music and don’t try analysing it too much! I’m now translating an Afrikaans article that was published today about them and I’m going to publish it on my site … hope people will then stop criticizing and start appreciating. If you don’t like it, don’t listen.
slamorte

They are all beautiful.

I’ve watched this several times and I am convinced: this is a brilliant and well-executed cultural hack designed to penetrate via popularity vectors. The payload is viral and I am still decoding it. It unpacks in multiple direction.
Anonymous

It’s Ali G, people.

The frontman and woman aren’t Afrikaans, and they aren’t poor. They’ve been making music at various levels in SA for a decade.

Zef = Chav.

This parody with a healthy dose of fun thrown in.

From what I hear though, their targets are lapping it up un-ironically.
Anonymous

but if they are all about South Africa, why Ninjas?
coaxial

This is so Ali G. Or perhaps Ali G meets Trailer Park Boys, like CLM said.

I can’t tell if this is real or not, which makes it the best kind of parody (intentional or otherwise.)
phenomenon

Yeah, +1 for Zef not being just poor people. Your average middle class Blue Bulls fanatic (with blue rubber bull balls hanging from his truck) is pretty much as Zef as you can ever get.

In fact, Doosdronk immediately reminded me of some of the people I used to work with. They are rich, and drive luxury cars, but are as common (or kommen or zef) as anyone I’ve ever met. Their idea of fun was watching rugby and getting completely wasted, then getting into fights and then driving home at 3 am on a sunday while still being too drunk to stand up.

Not all poor white/coloured (the afrikaans speaking communities) people are zef, and a lot of middle class and rich people are as zef as can be.
Anonymous

she’s hot. them is not.
weewillie

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Thanks for turning me onto this stuff. I listened to everything I could find on Youtube.

Too bad they are sooooo white trash. The Vice interview with them says they have a “dedicated legion of fans who generally shout along to every single track at live shows, punch random strangers in the face and then pass out in a steaming puddle of JÃ¤germesiter vomit.”

@juicewar”The idea of these guys earning mega bucks, being lionised by the music biz & feted by the press makes my skin a little clammy.” LMAO
- dole
  
  Kind of like a South African Insane Clown Posse.
  
  I really don’t know what to make of it. The guy’s got some flow and okay rhymes but the content and the beats are borderline corny. I can’t tell whether it’s semi-serious or just parody. Zef Side kind of has an interesting Diplo/MIA dance-style to it, Enter the Ninja sounds like a typical crunk/southern rap beat that hasn’t flourished yet, and the girl’s voice is rather annoying to me. Yeah… I guess it IS stuck in my head now, dammit.
Anonymous

This is outrageously awesome! Simply put, it entertained me. I have to appreciate this because South-Africa is all about breaking barriers and they have proven it. I love ZA music.

Thanks guys! Laat hy val waar hy wil, AWE ma se kind!
watman

@dole #33
I am a South African and I have the same problem trying to figure out whether it’s serious or parody. They certainly have serious fans, who may not understand that it’s very likely parody, which makes it even more amusing. Personally I think it’s a little bit of both, but mainly parody. That’s the only way I can enjoy it, and in that context I can’t stop laughing. Every track I listen to leaves me in stitches. There’s obviously a lot of (what some may call offensive) South African slang and Afrikaans thrown into the mix that is hilarious to hear being flung around to represent “hardcore”.

I think it taps into a lot of cultural elements, which is why it’s so funny to me – I know and have met people who are toned down versions of their over-the-top representations (and they parody more than just Afrikaans white trash but a lot of the rest of it is in the lyrics).
- phenomenon
  
  If you don’t get that everything about them is dripping with irony then you’re kind of stupid. Especially if you are South African. Come on, they describe themselves as zef.
  
  Doosdronk is the simplest and most straight-forward example, if you can’t see the parallels then I don’t know under what rock you’ve been living.
  
  The “Ninja” has been around in South African music a while with other projects.
  - watman
    
    @phenomenon #86
    
    I just presented my perception because of the Poe Paradox and the fact that I could very well be wrong. There are a lot of Very. Serious. performers out there who are exactly the same. Although that terminology is specifically applied to fundamentalists it’s the same effect for any sort of over-the-top parody or seemingly bizarre cultural representation.
    
    Meanwhile, I can also construct a reply without being abusive and insulting to make my point.
Anonymous

@Tuesdayweld: “anywhere in the world if someone wants to seem more bad*ss, they seem to pick up American crudeness (not that this type of language is exclusive to hip-hop; I curse plenty and that’s not where it comes from).”

Imo one of the best things about Die Antwoord is the way in which they use Afrikaans swearwords, and we do have some of the best and most creative in the world :), and the awesome out-there zef way a lot of Afrikaans people have been speaking since forever. Similarly to District 9.
TuesdayWeld

@ Anonymous 132; No, I don’t believe I addressed any form of racism at all. A hip-hop group co-opting anything has nothing to do with racism; it’s celebrating or at least paying tribute to the music an artist loves; however, IMHO, the resulting music should not be a copy of the original. I do believe Die Antwoord is adding its own personality to the music; I simply don’t care for the sound. As to the “calling bands out” comment, I’m merely making comparisons. The article and videos are about a specific band; I thought that was what the comments were about – was I incorrect? You could plug in just about any band to a discussion like this and have the same discussions.

As for the accents I was speaking more of the swagger and cursing; anywhere in the world if someone wants to seem more bad*ss, they seem to pick up American crudeness (not that this type of language is exclusive to hip-hop; I curse plenty and that’s not where it comes from).

Thanks for the correction on the El Cerrito/San Fran difference, but I must say if “they were portrayed by others as swamp-rock” it must be because it reminded fans and critics of whatever they perceived to be music from the American South. Let’s face it, pretty much anything played anywhere has the influence of classic blues/blues-rock/soul, which is (again, IMHO) where it all started.

I’m interested in your “response all it’s own” to the global hip-hop comment.
Anonymous

Die antwoord is die shit man
juancb

Absolutely mesmerizing stuff… Bold and unhinged, it hails from a different world, it reeks of raw humanity while being so alien. Somehow it’s us yet not, it provides a peek into our lives through a different set of shades, albeit not as rosy, yet just as real, human, and visceral.
Percy Sledge

Listen to Die Antwoord on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/DieAntwoord?ref=ts#/DieAntwoord?ref=ts

The best songs are the ones with more Afrikaans lyrics. Videos were made of the more English based songs, probably because it might reach a wider audience. With only about 8 million Afrikaans speaking people in the world itâ€™s not a big market.
Check out songs like:
Wie Makie Jol Vol? (Who Fills Up The Club?)
A song about being the life of the party, in a backward, zef kinda way. Features various hip hop artists from The Cape Flats.
Wat Pomp? (Whatâ€™s Pumping)
A typical pass-the-mic and introduce yourself song gone wrong. Sounds like Beastie Boys smoking Tik.
Doos Dronk (Canâ€™t quite be translated to English directly. A vulgar way of saying extremely drunk)
A song about getting drunk, breaking stuff, pissing your pants, beating your wife and getting locked up for it. Also features Jack Parow and members of controversial Afrikaans rock band Fokofpolisiekar (Fuck Off Police Car)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fokofpolisiekar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MdSh8OGCGw
http://www.youtubekeep.com/watch-video/jack-parow-cooler-as-ekke/3335
MichaelRN

Wow. Poked around the interwebs to see what else they have out there, and got this.

http://mhambi.com/2009/11/die-antwoord-in-a-cape-town-taxi/

There’s more than meets the eye to these guys. Are they art-school or real poverty?
TuesdayWeld

I like a lot of hip-hop music, as well as hip-hop from other global cultures (Mexico City’s Control Machete being one of them), but this group smacks of getting attention over a bizarre-looking girl and a Progeria sufferer (don’t know if “sufferer” is the proper word to use)rather than for the music they produce, which, IMHO is irritating at best.

White guys posing as gangstas, especially in white South Africa, rankle me more than anything. Again, IMHO, people should act as their own personalities rather than co-opting another culture and passing it off as their own. Who says the members of the band have to talk with “ghettofied” accents instead of their true accents? It seems they may have a crisis of confidence, since they have to use someone else’s framework to build their own music, unless they grew up in the hip-hop community and have these mannerisms and cultural phrasing because of being surrounded by it.

But then, plenty of bands/groups co-opt other cultures – look at Creedence Clearwater Revival; a bunch of white, San Francisco based guys who created a southern “swamp-rock” sound with a generous helping of soul influences basically convinced people they were from the American South.

Maybe I should just shut up – plenty of cultures co-opt from each other. but I still find Die Antwoord annoying. From Anonymous: “waddy jones is privileged, middle class and educated. and you know what? he should know better.”

I fully agree.
The Twitch

I’m more interested in who directs these videos. I LOVE their aesthetic.
Anonymous

I don’t get all the negative feedback I think they are really doing some great music don’t care who someone thinks they are imitating I ain’t heard anyone doing anything exactly like them you can say anyone doing something came from somewhere we all learn from the ones before us and then make it are own thing. i hope they take it all the way to the top and wish them the best of luck i will be buying their music it won me over first time i heard it
Anonymous

They have their tongues firmly in their cheeks. If you look at Waddy’s previous projects, Max Normal, Constructus Corporation and Max Normal TV, they all have an element of self aware satire. This is just the next iteration of Waddy Jones making fun of pop culture, and making great music out of it.

I’ll also second a vote for Jack Parow.
Percy Sledge

Doosdronk directly translated doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. That’s true for most Afrikaans swearwords, actually. The words may have a fairly accurate English equivalent but not the same cultural background to inflame the meaning. Case in point: poes. In Afrikaans it’s a vulgar term for female genitalia. The English equivalent is an euphemism for it. Now, translate befok.
- Anonymous
  
  Haha!!! Percy, good one! Befok = F*cking awesome!!! Not quite the same ring to it as befok.
  
  Die Antwoord is like a huge bloody/gory train wreck. Disturbing, yet you are unable to look away!
  
  BTW they are befok and kak funny!
- Forkboy
  
  I’m a dutch speaker, not afrikaans, but wouldn’t doosdronk translate to cuntdrunk (or shitfaced) ? That has a nice rhythm to it :-)
  And “befok” maybe “the shit” ?
  - kingshaun
    
    Right you are on both translations there Forkboy.
Anonymous

Interesting. Guy does have skillz. Girl looks like an anorexic with a bad haircut. Interesting version of gansta rap. More like burnt out hood rap with a hint of rave culture added in. initial impression: Meth head aliens, the have a striking look: Real world, worn down, and from the bad side of town.

The do have a unique quality, not sure if I like it.
Halloween Jack

featuring a hype-man/DJ with Progeria.

Roll over, Tsimfuckis!
wrybread

I think they should hire the commenter Felix Mitchel above since his overly serious and pompous critique of this hilarious band is just the right counterpoint for them. Nice work Felix!
Anonymous

Interesting article here http://www.levis.co.za/MusicMag/Category/Detail/Detail.aspx?ID=790 if not full satire, this is at least a fully self-aware thing here.
pumeza

I live down the road from these people and it takes BoingBoing to discover them. Brilliant. And for those who aren’t sure, if this isn’t parody I’ll eat my next paycheck. They’re way better than Corne and Twakkie.
Anonymous

check out “Enter the Ninja”… is that chicken little? Looks older than six months ago, which would make sense. I haven’t seen many other hip hoppers with progeria and he busts some similar moves. Good luck to you bro
Anonymous

They are absolutely dreadful on just about every level. A horrifying mish-mash of europop, vanilla-ice poserdom and mediocre rap. Their appeal is therefore obvious. For me, it is entertaining to listen to once, but I would want to kill myself if there stuff got into heavy rotation.
Tom Hale

I like the beat – but dude is just plain ridiculous -aint he a little too old for that crap? maybe if he looked a little less Vanilla Ice… – I’m not sure why but for some reason I feel compelled to beat the hell outta him – though I kinda doubt he ever visits the deep south.

Other than that, I like it alright.
Anonymous

FYI People!

“Die Antwoord” translates from Afrikaans to English as “The Answer”
Adam Stanhope

Stupid-fresh! I like ‘em.
Anonymous

immediately made me think of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_rxrmxIPkA
for some reason.
Anonymous

More!! More!!
Anonymous

Amazing! I am well and truly blown away!
reech

Dis nou fokken poescool beets vannie kaap.

Must be somewhat 1 dimensional without a little understanding of kapitaal though.
Anonymous

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Www.tism.wanker.com
jeffv

Thanks – that’s awesome funny. And if you understand Afrikaans the lyrics are _fantastic_. Not really family entertainment though.

@ Percy Sledge: Killed myself laughing to hear Doosdronk described as ‘A vulgar way of saying extremely drunk’. It can be translated too – at least directly – you just didn’t think that writing it here was going to bring the tone down.
trentrezn0r

Wow, these guys are still growing in popularity even though the initial buzz as dwindled. I’ve recently come across an awesome fansite which has been tracking everything Die Antwoord. There’s links to it occasionally on the wall of their facebook page.
Anonymous

Speaking of Vanilla Ice, I saw a show about him not too long ago and I was terribly impressed that he seemed to still have a lot of money. Having a lot of money is not impressive, but keeping a lot of money is.
Wingo

I am both terrified and highly pleased by this. It’s utterly confusing to my sensibilities, yet I cannot say that I am not entertained by it.
jmullan

I went this to submit it, but of course I didn’t spot that it was already here until I searched the interwebs for “you got two nice boobs and a penis too.” I think that Boing Boing just feeds directly into my subconscious now.
Anonymous

i strongly believe this is an alter ego for dutch producer Bas Bron, he’s done this before,acts with fake biographies.
but this time he’s really done it. :)
figured it out when i read this was on ‘magnetron music’
cheers keep up!
Dplanet

Just thought I’d share this video by Jaak (Jaak Paarl from track 5, Wie Maak Die Jol Vol’);

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5tgmvQb1lA
Anonymous

wow great stuff!
baracudaboy

I love it, so so much.
boingaddict

and i’m addicted, my poor co-workers have to listen to it all afternoon now hehehe
Krutus

Is this for real? Colour me confused. Xeni, your posts are the best :)
Kameraad Mhambi

Hello Boing

Read more about what Zef is here.

And to get a pretty good lowdown on them, check this message board thread.
Anonymous

This appears to be a previous project of theirs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRy6pBpwVbk

So yeah, seems more art school then “genuine”.
Percy Sledge

This should answer a few of your questions:

http://www.theguide.co.za/music_detail.php?musicid=4551&success#reviews

Zef is Afrikaans slang for Ghetto/Trailertrash/Redneck/etc.
Find out a little more:

http://mhambi.com/2010/02/what-is-zef/#more-884
- Xopher
  
  Wow, that’s one big swingin’ dick in the GIF at that second link, Percy!
Anonymous

my grandparents were dirt broke and living in squalor when the apartheid government was handing out jobs to anyone. mental illness, crippling abuse and alcoholism will do that. so will being a single mother in a socially conservative time with no access to reproductive healthcare or social security.

you know, its amazing to me that the people who read this site can still be so backwards. i dont really understand how taking the piss out of ignorant, poor, handicapped and uneducated people is ok, ever, in any context. are afrikaans south africans from lower socio-economic areas by and large racist? yes. are they screw ups? a lot of them are. but you know what, they are also still just pretty unfortunate people. i dont think its ok to laugh at that kind of social misery. and i certainly dont think its ok to turn their lives into some kind of surreal, chris cunningham inspired freak show.

waddy jones is privileged, middle class and educated. and you know what? he should know better.

this disappoints me so much.
- pumeza
  
  I’m not so sure this is about turning people’s lives into a freak show — I suspect that the barbs are aimed more at people like JuiceWar at #16 above, and indeed anybody who can use the phrase “white trash” with a straight face. There is more affection than scorn in this, I think. The sensibility reminds me of that brilliant Australian film The Castle.
  
  Also, what stosh machek said at #74: This set my brain reeling in a way nothing much else has for a while. Some corners of my own cluelessness have been illuminated, and that’s always good. Also, it’s frikken hilarious.
- Anonymous
  
  it is NEVER ok to make fun of folks for being unfortunately worse off than others… no matter what the reason is. good art and great tunes can come from a million other inspirational sources – let us not become a society where this is all we can think of to keep ourselves entertained.
Anonymous

Just so that everyone knows – Die Antwoord is totally a skit. A mean, this is not what these people are like in real life. They’re whole vibe is to be as zef as possible though. Similar to Jack Parow. You can check out http://www.watkykjy.com (“wat kyk jy” = “what are you looking at”), a South Africa blog that follows everything zef. The amazing thing is that it’s so liberating to be zef, even if you’re just pretending. It soon becomes a lifestyle. Zef so fresh…
Anonymous

Merci!
phenomenon

If you are not familiar with the erm culture they are about you won’t find half of it as funny as you should.
ben

So, after poking around their site, they have their mp3s stored in an unprotected folder from which the main flash app streams. So, if you construct URLs like:

http://www.dieantwoord.com/music/1.mp3

You can download the whole album. Hint: there are 16 tracks. The mp3s are 128kbps, so not terribly good, but should hold you over until you can get the retail/download whatever they will release. Which I do plan on buying if it’s reasonable.
- Percy Sledge
  
  Everybody’s favourite part of the video, on repeat.
- hohum
  
  curl -O http://www.dieantwoord.com/music/1-16.mp3
stosh machek

anything that has had this much (pro/slick) effort put into it & still leaves you wondering wtf? at least -approaches- that function of art which seeks to pull the rug out from under your brain to set you up for a ‘transformitive’ experience …this project worx on so many levels & says & questions so many things that it’s dizzying …serious? who knows? legit? imo; yes, very …thumbs up …thanx again xeni
liatach

Hilarious and wonderfull.

Thank you to Anon #20 above for the links to about Leon Botha.
dantedreams.com

Interesting. Guy does have skillz. Girl looks like an anorexic with a bad haircut. Interesting version of gansta rap. More like burnt out hood rap with a hint of rave culture added in. initial impression: Meth head aliens, they have a striking look: Real world, worn down, and from the bad side of town.

The do have a unique quality, not sure if I like it.
Anonymous

Yeah, this is what the internet is for. That’s some straight up SnowCrash stuff right there. Props.
Adam Stanhope

I’m curious how old they are…

“He” looks like he’s appx. 40.

“She” looks like she’s 12.
- Percy Sledge
  
  I don’t think anybody knows for sure, apart from their mothers. Ninja’s younger than 40. He first rose to fame in the mid-90s with South African Music Award winning hip hop group The Original Evergreen, then toured the world with the critically aclaimed conceptual hip hop crew Max Normal. He then formed the cartoon hip hop group Constructus Corporation before doing Max Normal.TV, an audiovisual hip hop extravaganza. Now it’s Die Antwoord, a zef-hop crew featuring former Max Normal.TV members, DJ Hi Tek and Yo-Lande Vi$$er.
  Check out The Real Estate Agents, featuring former members of Max Normal and Construcus Corporation.
  - Adam Stanhope
    
    Thanks.
    
    I’m finding myself mysteriously fascinated by them. Regardless of whether or not they are “posers,” they are sure talented.
sorted

I fooken love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anonymous

Die Antwoord ROCKS! they are literally the bee’s knees!
atomkeks

This link was posted here before:

http://www.watkykjy.co.za/die-antwoord/

Now go visit it again and then view the page html source code.