The ghetto/rich style of Die Antwoord seems to be a bit of a parody of the stereotypical rap image, yet they put their own spin on it. They have done other music projects in the past which were different than this so they have some range as far as characters go. So who are these guys? Is it an act? Is this real? From what I can tell, the group Die Antwoord is a bit of a performance act, but it is closely based on the real persona's of Ninja and Yolandi. The video is very interesting to watch and the song is good too.ĭie Antwoord - Enter the Ninja (Music video) Yolandi keeps trying to sneek boys in the house while Ninja chases them out. Finally they caught my attention with their latest video, "Baby's On Fire." The video features a blond Ninja and Yolandi as brother and sister in their parent's house. Again I dismissed it without much thought. Later they made a video for "I Fink U Freeky" which is a creepy video but none the less entertaining. I thought it was pretty cool, but didn't really look much into it at the time. I first heard about them a couple years back when they released the video for the song Enter the Ninja. Their lyrics are mostly understood by English speakers, but they also use a lot of words and dialect native to South Africa. They are from South Africa and have exploded onto the music scene with their shocking videos and unique style of music. I have listened to their music, watched their videos, and researched their background to provide some insight on this group whose name translates into "The Answer."ĭie Antwoord consists of the tough gangsta rap type guy by the name of Ninja, the cute yet hardcore girl named Yolandi, and their mysterious DJ, DJ Hi Tek. At first it's hard to understand what they are because they are so different from what we are accustomed to, at least in the US. Sail away, motherfuckers."Who are these guys?" and "What did I just watch?" are common question people ask when they first discover the zef rap group Die Antwoord.
Vocoders! The word “motherfucker”! An Enya sample “hilariously” flipped into Robot Chicken-levels of hacky reference “joke”-telling! Rapper Ninja goes into some weird menstruation sex rap that’s mostly WTF and zero LOL, mainly because he can barely ever pick two words that rhyme: “You’re on your period with no tampon?/You kneel down, get with the vibe.” The most embarrassing thing about this is realizing that the Lonely Island guys are like Wu-Tang Clan when put up against these jokers. “Orinoco Ninja Flow (Wedding DJ’s Remix)” is part mash-up, part remix and totally fucking unlistenable. Rest in peace, most recent reason for rock critics to use the words like “earworms” and “infectious” as a euphemism for “there is literally nothing of substance on this.” Die Antwoord promptly began their tumble from being the new Sleigh Bells to being the new William Hung. Luckily by the time the record dropped most critics moved on to laughing at Double Rainbow guy. No one seemed to notice or care that the entire thing was a grand hoax for the South African version of a Pratt Student to make a career out of “Pretty Fly For A White Guy” poser-baiting.
Indie sites started co-signing them, major labels started taking interest, Diplo gave a seal of approval, and people started treating what was basically an art-school Andy Milonakis routine like a real band. When the viral video “ Enter The Ninja” was passed around in January, everyone had a hearty lol at what combined hipsters’ love of unfunny joke-rap (it’s been 30 years, guys, it never gets old!) with hipsters’ love of people with funny accents (holler at me, .) “They have guy in the band with Progeria” became the 2010 version of “50 Cent’s been shot nine times” in that both of these things make them awesome rappers and totally worth your time.īut then a funny thing happened. See everything from Lil B’s tuneless swag-offs, to Tonetta’s outsider pervert-punk, to the chin-stroking reevaluations of the stupid fucking “ Bed Intruder Song.” Seriously, guys, when does “Dramatic Chipmunk” get his turn at Sundance?! The worst of all has been the mercifully brief critical hoopla around Die Antwoord, the shrill, sub-Juggalo rave-rap crew from South Africa. Yeah, everyone is trying to pass off grating YouTube novelties as “serious art” right now. When these people hit critical mass, proclaim them “secret geniuses” to mask your childish xenophobia. Use the safety of the internet to laugh and point at people who look and act different than you.Ģ.
How to be a rock critic in 2010 in two steps:ġ. F2K10 is a countdown of the 20 worst songs of 2010.