Read more in Music at Boing Boing

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.

MORE: Entertainment • music • Weird

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

kib

So white trash tourism is okay when it’s foreign? I keep waiting for Joaquin Phoenix to apologize to Letterman for this non-joke.
Honestly, even if the music wasn’t just a bedroom mish-mash of old rap tropes, even if these short films weren’t clearly mockumentaries, even if there was a kernel of truth to the up-from-the gutter story, who gives a fuck? If you’re going to create a meta-wise poke at something, at least endow the character with a redeeming quality. And making fun of fake rapper success stories? Man, rap music does that on its own every day.

I’m as sick of this as I am of fucking steampunk. We get it; it’s new but it looks old.

Love the blog! Keep up the good work! ;)
- robulus
  
  Not your cup of tea, then?
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Oh, was that tea in the cup? I thought it was bile.
    - kib
      
      The clue is in the word “meta”.
      ;) <—-
hassenpfeffer

Feh. Can we get a story or two about the Kronos Quartet?
- PaulR
  
  Hear, hear!
  
  Actually, I’m beginning to suspect that Happy Mutants LLC has shares in Die Antwoord.
  
  Oh, and in United Fruit Company.
  - Ted8305
    
    I’m just waiting for Die Antwoord to headline at the next Gathering of the Juggalos.
    
    Then the Happy Mutants will road trip there in a (banana) yellow colored art-bus filled with steampunk paraphenalia. It’ll be fokken awesome.
Anonymous

Hip-hop has always been about theater. No one in the community will tell you that, though. “Keepin’ it real” sounds better than “Keepin’ it reasonably believable, while simultaneously expanding your consciousness.” I mean, Tupac attended Baltimore School for the Arts for fucks sake.
Anonymous

two of my good friends from South Africa watched all the videos and told me that “yolandi is definitely for real…. Ninja, totally fakin”
Anonymous

Either you get it or you don’t, most honest artistic expression I’ve seen in quite some time. Glad to see them getting props finally. Waddy Jones has been at it for years, look inot the form what he has been doing, then maybe you will understand the effort and the art.
- nerdler
  
  This seems appropriate:
  
  http://i.imgur.com/et8TF.png
Gendun

The growing popularity of Die Andwoord is the worst thing to happen to the US since the attack on Pearl Harbor. Granted, the death toll is lower, but the geopolitical implications are staggering.
Sean Blueart

My last comment questioning the quality of Mr. Ninja’s alleged joke wasn’t posted. I’m guessing it was because I used the “N” word, though I thought the context was clear. If it was in fact a censorship to protect the integrity of the thread and not a technical snafu, I say; I guess transgression is reserved for the venerated bad-asses.
- robulus
  
  Oh God not this again.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  There’s no exemption for what you loosely refer to as context. If it’s in a book/film/etc. title or part of a substantive quote as well as being precisely and critically on topic, it’s allowable. I think that those criteria have been met about once in slightly under a million comments.
  - Sean Blueart
    
    Antinous, I thought I was right on, and I respect your judgement about it. I’ll do a better job making sure it’s more substantive and fitting next time. Thanks for the response.
Shane

I’ve enjoyed the music that’s been posted from these guys, but, wow, this video just took the whole sheen off the thing.

Whatever we say now that means “jumped the shark”… I think that’s what happened here.
- PaulR
  
  I’m not quite up to all the current neologisms, but “jumped the shark” nuked the fridge a few years ago.
  
  If you know what I’m sayin’.
The Mudshark

Something else from SA for a change: This is a video of Teba Shumba, a.k.a. the original social worker, who rocked Vienna with his crew on tour this summer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tq3YC_IzAM
Some of the nicest people IÂ´ve met, too. Although I like Die Antwoord, IÂ´d spend my evening with them rather than ninja anytime.
Mazoola

It’s like a South African cargo cult built around a Trailer Park Boys boxed set.
Bryan

I am thrilled to have learned we are in the fucking future!
irksome

Your obsession with this one band is becoming a mite unseemly.

Your mother and I are getting worried; perhaps it’s only a phase but still, let’s talk.
- MrsBug
  
  :snicker: I keep waiting, patiently, for the Boinger staff to say, “It was a joke!”.
  
  :sits back down to wait:
Anonymous

Dude, the whole thing’s probably becoming somewhat real for them at this point coz they’re pushing the act so much! It was probably fun in the beginning, but it’s losing its novelty really quickly. Their trashy inspiration is waning. Zef is just trashy image and ankle deep trashy culture… they can’t showcase it more than they have, especially as empty theatrics for sake of theatrics.

I will hand it to them tho, I can’t imagine anything zeffer than the vibe and backdrop Die Antwoord has projected in their videos. They really have redefined “zef” to the extreme of it’s usage.
Regardless, they’ve almost fully lost their shock value already. What’s new. :P

– Fokken piele julle etters! We’ll see how far it goes…
PS. Yolandi, you’re something else liefie!
Stazz |Joburg, RSA
Anonymous

Mixing elves, AND rap! I’m impressed..
duggo42

I’ve liked what music I’ve heard from them but I sure don’t like the character this guy plays on tv.
jeligula

Their native habitat being trailer parks and HIV infested tattoo parlors? Maybe that’s just my American slant on things as well as this thing called taste. These folks make me want to take a scalding hot shower just by looking at ‘em.
Chang

You know, I’ve been known to drop quite a few f-bombs in my time but that cat needs to learn a new word.
frankieboy

How has this renaissance man escaped my attention? Graphic art (is the yawning va-jay-jay an example of his style?, I bet it is.), stuffed animals, music, spoken word. Where does it end? Does it end? The scope of his interests, the breadth of his oeuvre, it inspires awe, it does. As a previous poster enthused, “it’s all top notch”. Don’t let your first impression lead you in the wrong direction. It’s like reading Joyce, really, or looking at a Picasso, listening to Steve Reich. Great pleasure will be the reward of the attentive audience. And lest one forget, fuck.
deanaoxo

I always crack up reading the comments about Yo-Landi and Ninja, but when i watch them, i just get tickled all to hell. It’s like being on the inside of this huge frakkin’ joke, and the fact that so many write what they do just further exemplifies that feeling.

Like anything else on the interwebz, if you don’t like it, why are you watching it?

Thank you Xeni, i love all your sides, bad, good, wise and bad ass!

aoxomoxoa~!~ zef future~!~
lionelbrits

I am hesitant to point out that Holnaaier translates to Hole-seamster. Or Buckfutter, if direct translations aren’t your thing.
Anonymous

This video is NSFW, due to the full screen shot of a medium sized penis about three quarters through the video. Just an FYI.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Who gives a cock alert without the exact time? Ur doin it rong!
Sean Blueart

My fukin’ daddy sez i’m a fukin’ accident and doensn’t fukin’ believe in havin’ no fukin’ relationship with me or my fukin’ mommy cuz his fukin’ rap style is fukin’ everything.

Yeah, put me in that kids shoes, that’s what I’m talking about. I just can’t find it in myself to send blessings to this fukin’ amazing master of expression.

Somehow I can’t long for a world where image, style and a gift for transgressive edginess is an all encompassing value. I must be in the future and if I can’t handle it it’s my own fukin’ problem.
- Poet
  
  He was answering the question about RELATIONSHIPS Sean, his child came up only as an offshoot of the original question. Let me translate as best I can, “Fucking relationships get in the fucking way of my fucking career” “We are fucking great parents but fucking lousy fucking lovers”.
  - Sean Blueart
    
    Exactly. Are you ready to step into that kids shoes? I’ll take responsibility for my statement by saying, I wouldn’t want to be that kid.
    
    Speaking as a career artist well trained in criticism; I believe I’m open to all forms of expression, and I do get the occasional value of transgression. When the expression becomes a direct form of opression, especially to an innocent, like his child, I stop handing out credibility and honesty passes.
    
    He clearly said that the child was an accident and his career mattered more.
    - Ted8305
      
      @Sean Blueart, I agree with your take on what was said in the interview. I wonder how much of Yolandi and Waddy’s act is for real. I wonder if, like many musicians, they exaggerate how hardcore they are as part of the act.
      
      Or, in the words of KRS-One: MC’s act like they don’t know.
      - knodi
        
        You wonder how much is manufactured/acting? Here’s a clue: Ninja’s real name is “Watkin Tudor Jones”, and he used to do motivational-speaking rap in a three-piece suit.
        
        Waddy has released several albums under different guises (including the Sibot-produced The Fantastic Kill and Markus Wormstorm-produced promo-only EP “Emmanuel Rothchild – My Favourite Songs” and “Markus Wormstorm Is Not Gay”), and expanded into graphic art, stuffed animal making, and other aspects of his creativity.
        
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watkin_Tudor_Jones
      - Anonymous
        
        Even further, just watch the details of the video. They start showing a bungalow surrounded by a dilapidated fence. Then they show him sitting by a car that surrounded by a brick wall, with nice houses in the back. Then they show him and Yolanda in a old RV/trailer home. Everything is done for effect, not as documentation.
        I can’t say I understand the allure. The character just seems like a South African Eminem. They glorify Zef/redneck life, especially its downsides, as a point of pride. From a marketing standpoint, it makes sense. Personally I’d go for the more on the Kronos Quartet too.
      - Jon
        
        There are a few blatant errors in the videos that show that this is a manufactured band/art project. In the video ‘Zef Side (Official)’ (BB 1st Feb), a few seconds into the video you can see a mountain in the background, most likely Cape Town. This was their original ‘habitat’. This video is clearly Jo’burg. The number plates on the cars and the tower in the background show that. The biggest thing though is just the production quality of the ‘Enter the Ninja’ video. It’s just too good. From the editing to the set, it’s all top notch. Someone put a lot of money into creating this band.
        
        Any interview he gives is just an extension of this act. Last I heard, these two are living together in Cape Town.
        
        I give credit to Die Antwoord for what they’ve achieved so far. There have been many South African artists that would have loved half the attention that Die Antwoord are getting.
    - Poet
      
      I still disagree with your sentiments and further think the vast majority of people on this planet were “accidents”, I certainly was.
      
      In reality though I think both of us really have no chance of being right or wrong about this without moving to SA and living with them. For now I will take his and Yolandi’s word on it.
      
      At least now they got some bucks to spread around, Rick Bitch indeed.
davidasposted

Was that a tattoo of ‘Wat Ky k Jy?’ on his penis?
- Dave Faris
  
  “wat kyk jy”
  
  I’m guessing that he’s been partially disemvowelled.
Anonymous

Oh. My. God. He really knows how to use the F-word for each 2-3 word he says. I’m kind of impressed. :)
davidasposted

Oh I know what it means generally, but thanks for the translation. I was just asking if the single frame inserted toward the end of the clip showed a tattoo on his penis, or if instead he simply wrote it in ink. It would be an ironic statement to appear on that part of the body as a tattoo, if not a bit painful to inscribe.
Anonymous

Actually, wat kyk jy? means, “what are you looking at?”, and is a phrase you might hear in a bar just before waking up on the floor with a broken jaw. Wat pomp? means “what’s happening?”, or “what’s pumping?”, and has a slightly friendlier connotation.

And yes, “wat kyk jy” is, in fact tattooed on his piel. NSFW link.

A short movie about Die Antwoord, in their native habitat

Read more in Music at Boing Boing

More at Boing Boing