Die Antwoord: Baby's On Fire (music video)

Video Link. "Baby's On Fire," from the Die Antwoord album TEN$ION. Video directed by NINJA and Terence Neale. DP: Alexis Zabe. (thanks, Yo-Landi and Ninja!).

• [Nathan Pensky]

  I was hoping this would be a cover of the Brian Eno song, but this is just as good.

  • [Evan Tune]

    Better throw her in the water.

  • [pjcamp]

     Sadly, no.

    Eno and Fripp for the win.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvPHbbUwVU8

  • [exile]

     801 Live (ftw also)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFkQ-d0OeEg

  • [waetherman]

    I was too. Though I can’t say this song was to my taste, it is probably as offensive to my ears as Eno was to my parents.

• [tristan eldritch]

  Pretty deep ending……did the dude go Back to the Future or what?

• [Cowicide]

  Just another day in Oregon Hill in Richmond, VA back in the day…

  • [Jim Nelson]

    Oh God yes. Wannabe thugs and 14 year old mothers.

  • [CCinBmore]

     Wait, you too? First Xeni, now more. Jim Nelson I suppose?

    What year was “back in the day?”  I remember no cows.

    • [Cowicide]

      Mid to late 80′s to early to mid 90′s more off than on. Oregon Hill in the 90′s for a bit. I was the one across from the church that had smoke pouring out of my place lit with disco lights, video projectors and awful “satanic” music and sometimes loud sex acts. If the weather/humidity was right, you’d pass through a fog in the street in front of my place via my fog machine. I had an up and down relationship with my neighbors, usually “up” for the most part… or sometimes down when I needed to shoot at them (but I won’t get into that part).

      Hung out with Burn the Priest for a little bit before they became Lamb of God. Hung out with some of GWAR (mountain biked with one of ‘em) and had relations with some of their assorted slaves. Beau (pictured below) pierced my nipple, etc. in the 90′s at some place on Cary St. near the Jade Elephant when that existed or not or whatever.

      I grew my hair long after most everyone else cut their’s short during this time in the 90′s because fuck society, that’s why. ^-^

      And, somewhere out there I had a doppleganger roaming around who looked literally exactly like me. My GF at the time and I saw him and tried to track him down but he escaped. He even had the same hair style and everything, it was bizarre. I wish we could have captured and killed him because I don’t think it’s good to have a doppleganger running around on the loose like that unless they are in cahoots with you.

      There was much sex, violence and depraved fun, but also lots of frustration with the town as well, so I eventually jettisoned, never to return.

      • [Cowicide]

        Only picture I could find of him I just found online…

• [bcsizemo]

  Proof positive the idea of “white trash” isn’t just an American thing…

  And personally I was disappointed by the lack of penises, and penis shaped decorations.

• [Martin Fox]

  I hoped this was a Brian Eno cover, too. In which case I would have watched the whole thing.

  • [Incipient Madness]

    I was hoping the same thing, but I watched it all and kinda liked it. 

• [VaughnMarlowe]

  White people ruin everything.

• [timquinn]

  But Baby’s on fire, and all the instruments agree that, her temperature’s rising, but any idiot would know that

• [lorq]

  Surprised to find myself saying this, but that wasn’t quite depraved *enough*.

• [Xeni Jardin]

  I thought it was DOPE DOPE DOPE DOPE DOPE.

  • [Jim Saul]

    Speaking of which, Ninja was wrong. Young fella did seem to have two things on his mind after all.

    The car stunts were pretty intense.

  • [OtherMichael]

    when Die Antwoord video is playing, ja? ja!
    I am watching it, ja? ja!
    I think it’s dope, ja? ja!
    With a techno beat, ja? ja!
    With a techno beat, ja? ja!

    Baby’s on fire, ja? ja!
    with pastel clothes on, she looks good!
    Baby’s on fire, ja? ja!
    with pastel clothes on, she looks good!

    and her boyfriend, ja? ja!
    and tattoos, ja? ja!
    they have taken drugs, ja? ja!
    and here’s her brother, ja? ja!
    with a Ninja lightsaber, ja? ja!

    when Die Antwoord video is playing, ja? ja!
    I am watching it, ja? ja!
    I think it’s dope, ja? ja!
    With a techno beat, ja? ja!
    With a techno beat, ja? ja!

    (With apologies to HGICH.T, Die Antwood, and just about all of you)

• [djcarlito]

  yessssss….

• [Aeron]

  Expertly placed play button.

• [Michael Nordstrom]

  Man, that Luka Magnotta really got around, didn’t he?
  Ninja looks so much like my 76-year old Uncle Johnny.

• [blueelm]

  Yolandi does have an awfully similar haircut to Here Come the Warm Jets era Eno.

• [hanoverfiste]

  This just the reason my mom wouldn’t let me watch MTV back in the day, she was afraid in 1984 they’d be showing this video.
  It was pretty awesome, I swear I had a college friend who lived an apartment complex in Lubbock, TX that looked like that.

  • [LinkMan]

    Are we born of the same mother?

• [koko szanel]

  nice red bull commercial ….

  • [Cowicide]

    Red Bull makes you sprout bats, machetes and handguns.

• [pizzicato]

  Too fucking awesome. BTW there’s a youtube makeup tutorial to look like Yolandi… Dig those bleach brow 

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    No link?

    • [Felton / Moderator]

      Voilà!

      • [Cowicide]

        Ah…

• [x jeremy jarratt]

  somebody hold me

• [Manhattan Project Playboy]

  idiot’s delight

• [Ambiguity]

  I don’t know… seems like making a fortune selling second-hand tobaccos.

  • [irksome]

    Any idiot would know that…

• [Ladyfingers]

  “Poes” really is the most violent of expletives.

• [Mister44]

  I liked it. They’ve slowly grown on me. I really like how some of their techno beats have that retro early 90s vibe.

  • [Noctilucent Studios]

     Agreed…I don’t want to like it, no idea why really, but I did enjoy it!

    • [blueelm]

      This is how it has worked with me. I avoided it. I wanted to dislike it. I dreaded it. And now…. now I find myself listening to it. WTF?

      • [Jim Saul]

        I think it’s freaky but I like it a lot.

  • [penguinchris]

    I liked this a lot more than earlier songs Xeni has posted, some of which I found to be unlistenable at the time. But perhaps they have indeed grown on me too and I should listen to the earlier stuff again.

  • [bbonyx]

    Yeah, I’m fairly certain the main “Ahh!” melody sound behind Ninja in the chorus (3:29) is a sample of the opening hit from LA Style’s “James Brown is Dead”. And I’m pretty sure I heard some Mig 29 sampled in there too. Definitely kyping from the early 90′s… which is a *great* thing.

    • [dr_awkward]

      It would make sense, since “zef” is a music genre that celebrates outdated (maybe specifically 90s-era) cultural memes.

• [dorkhero]

  That’s it. I’m officially old. :(

  • [irksome]

    I feel your pain.

• [Baz]

  Love it. Love all their videos so far. 
  This one has a different but very coherent visual style that I find enormously appealing, and a funny message about gender double standards to boot. I also like the translations in the beginning and the car stunts are crazy.

• [PinkWithIndignation]

  I could like it, but her voice is like a cartoon mouse rapping. And I can’t tell where her hair starts and her face ends, which bugs me. Just a personal pet peeve.

• [Drew from Zhrodague]

  Does Ninja have a Subaru? ‘Cause that would be awesome.

• [Greg Bosen]

  +1 for grannies cat video!

• [Wild Rumpus]

  Thank you Xeni for turning me onto Die Antwoord.  I am forever grateful.  I dig everything about them.

  …and I have no idea why Yolandi Visser gives me such a hard on, but she does…

• [Blayne Scott]

  Back when I was working in S.Korea an an ESL teacher, I mentioned Die Antwoord to a fellow teacher who was white south african. I was really curious how that side of the country viewed the band. The look of horror on her face when I mentioned them told me everything I needed to know. ;)

• [JoeDamage]

  I think you need to expand your sample a bit… and read up a bit more on South Africa. (Or speak to a few more South Africans before closing the book on what you ‘need’ to know) White South Africans aren’t a ‘side of the country’. They’re pretty diverse in their values and culture and many of them find Die Antwoord fantastic. Even Afrikaans White South Africans from Bellville.

• [Goner Doug]

  I kick deez mufuggaz in my ride as I nod knowingly at the other 40-something white suburban dads and roll my vw turbo sedan when the naaiers look at me wrong.

• [David Kopelman]

  So glad to see our cultural exports infusing the world at large with wholesome goodness and positive imagery.

• [Sinead Dowding]

  This song was released just too late to be in the new Jet Set Radio playlist.

• [Scott Rose]

  I was initially glad that I was introduced to Die Antwoord.  But this was like watching someone pound kittens with a hammer.  Blatant “f you, I’m stoner white trash that got famous” messages don’t do it for me. Just makes me wish that was a real gun, instead of a pipe…

  • [dr_awkward]

    I think that Ninja is just a character.  If you doubt that, you should look into MaxNormal.TV, a musical group in which in which Watkin Tudor Jones (aka Ninja) fronts: “They were a South African hip-hop crew that performed live wearing three-piece suits while frontman MaxNormal delivered his motivational speaking style raps to the audience. He also illustrated his lyrics to help the audience follow which were projected onto a big screen above the live performers and are triggered live to the beat by Max’s personal assistant, Yolandi Visser, in a PowerPoint presentation style.”

    • [OtherMichael]

      Please Come to my Show

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QcYxqvWCgg

      Google is your friend:

      Die Antwoord (Afrikaans for “The Answer”) is a South African rap-rave group whose style draws from the Zef counter-culture movement. [emphasis added]

      Wikipedia: Die Antwood

      Wikipedia: Zef

      Yolandi Visser of Die Antwoord is quoted as saying, “It’s associated with people who soup their cars up and rock gold and shit. Zef is, you’re poor but you’re fancy. You’re poor but you’re sexy, you’ve got style.”

  • [DewiMorgan]

     It can be hard to see the irony when it’s not laid on thick enough for US audiences to get. But yes, Die Antwoord are totally taking the piss here: not just of themselves, their community, their roots, and the music scene, but also of the viewer.

    Kind of like Ali G’s sense of humor: they take the piss, but not from a “we’re better than that” angle, any more than BoingBoing’s delighted mirth at geeky excesses is a claim to be any better than geeks themselves :)

    I find it delightful, at least in reasonable sized doses, but I can definitely see how it could be too much, especially if taken literally, or if you *live* in that kind of world and already have it up to the back teeth with the kind of abusive crap that they’re mocking.

• [supertsaar]

  Very Maaskantje.

• [Tunacorn]

  Amazing guitar solo!!!

• [rastronomicals]

  This comment thread needs more Eno references.

• [10xor01]

  I pity the fool who claims to have more bling than Mr. T!

• [Chauncey Scott]

  Out there. Freaking out there. 

• [dr_awkward]

  Thankyouthankyouthankyou for introducing me to Die Antwoord.

• [Teller]

  Really like the video/song. Yo-Landi reminds me of a Beverly Hills tweener with a filthy mouth.

• [Haz 0]

  Good beat, annoying voice.