News

Be Afraid, Die Antwoord Want Your Soul

• 14th Nov 2012

Check out the mind warping new video from South African Zef crew Die Antwoord and then tell us you don’t like them. Go on, we dare ya. It’s physically impossible. If you’re a music fan, the innovative rhythms and challenging new material that Die Antwoord are peddling are a revelation.

The group is comprised of lead vocalists Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er, with DJ Hi-Tek commonly referenced as a third member, although the band blend reality with fantastical elements for artistic effect so regularly it’s hard to know whether DJ Hi-Tek is a real person or another bizarre figment of this intense new acts imagination.

Ninja recently told Rolling Stone, “Everything I did before Die Antwoord was me experimenting, messing around and trying to find Die Antwoord…everything before it was disposable. It was all throwaway.”

Incorporating elements of performance art and challenging people’s perceptions of popular modern music, Die Antwoord are drawing plenty of fire from all quarters, but also gaining a rabidly fanatic fanbase.

“People are unconscious, and you have to use your art as a shock machine to wake them up.” says Ninja “Some people are too far gone. They’ll just keep asking, ‘Is it real? Is it real?’ That’s dwanky. That’s a word we have in South Africa, ‘dwanky.’ It’s like lame. ‘Is it real?’ Dwanky. You have to be futuristic and carry on. You gotta be a good guide to help people get away from dull experience.

Die Antwoord’s musical and visual style incorporates elements of Zef culture, described as modern and trashy, appropriating out-of-date, discarded cultural elements. Yo-Landi said, “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.”

Keep those blinds shut, your Mum’s not going to like this one.