And people were like, “What the fuck is this?” But there hasn’t been a pop star blowing anybody’s mind. I used to be into Björk and PJ Harvey, and they used to blow my mind. Because everything is the same recipe, rehashed. What are they doing? What is this?” YV: But also I was watching MTV, and I was like, Oh, this is why everyone thinks we’re a joke. But in America it’s a little alien, so they’re like, “I don’t get it. N: In South Africa people know what we are straightaway. Or if you’re just a joke, punking us all. They wonder if you’re a conceptual art project. People have questioned if you’re for real. We don’t worry about what’s going on too much we just stay in our power zone. I don’t register a lot of stuff out there. She has a strong visual thing that kinda works, but her music’s like some washed-up wannabe Madonna. What about some of your labelmates? Lady Gaga? N: She doesn’t impress me at all. YV: Yeah, at our shows we see quite a few people doing it.Īre there any musicians today you admire? N: Not really. So it was quite a big thing to cut it off, but then it looked cool. N: And then we started thinking about it, and I was like, Should I cut it? Cuz you can make her cry if you fuck her hair up. I told Ninja I wanted something more poisonous. How did the look come about? YV: People on the streets where we live used to call me Blondie and Britney, and it used to irritate me. Yo-Landi, who does your hair? YV: Ninja cuts it. It’s putting things together you think are cool. People try to say it’s like trash, but it’s not really trash. You’ll get a kid in Liberia wearing a Tupac T-shirt, and for us that’s zef. We made it our thing.Ĭan you describe the look? N: It’s kind of like apocalyptic debris. It was something people were shy or scared of-they swept it under the carpet. But for us, although it is kind of a negative word, we started just… YV: Flipping it. The conservative people use it to dis lower-class people. One is very conservative and stiff, and the other, the underbelly of that, is zef. You call it “zef”-which is what, exactly? N: The Afrikaners have these different cultures. Well, you come off as pretty aggressive-and weird. I have to admit, I’m a little scared of you guys. In the meantime, they’re producing their own movie, a trippy feature titled The Answer, due out later this year. According to the band’s publicist, director David Fincher approached Vi$$er to audition for the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo franchise (she declined) David Lynch invited them for cappuccino at his house (they accepted) and in November, Harmony Korine filmed an extended music video for them. Ninja, a heavily tattooed Vanilla Ice look-alike who has served time in prison, and his platinum-haired pixie sidekick have since been signed to Interscope (home of Marilyn Manson and Lady Gaga) and caught the attention of Hollywood. They also transformed the obscure “rap-rave” act from suburban Cape Town into the biggest pop sensation ever to come out of South Africa. With such a wide blend of cultures, languages and different lifestyles we seem to be creating our own unique style of craziness.ĭie Antwoord is like watching some perverted porn, you may not like what you see and hear, but you just cannot stop wondering if its for real or hopefully only make believe.It was February 1, 2010, when online magazine Boing Boing first posted the music videos for Die Antwoord’s “Zef Side” and “Enter the Ninja.” Featuring an oddly comical interview with bandmates Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er-along with a dancing man with progeria (the genetic condition marked by premature aging) and a haunting chorus (“I, I, I/I am your butterfly”)-the clips went viral, garnering the band’s website more than 15 million hits within the month. This combined with the poor white trash and the cape gangsters, gives you Zef-Rap.Though I am sure their growing fan base is mainly due to their wackiness and the fact that as South Africans we like to point and laugh at each other, even though all of us relate partly to one others cultures. The ninja used to perform under the name Max Normal but with Die Antwoord (The Answer) he has a whole new image.Ĭape Town has a huge community of mix race (called coloureds in the apartheid era) with their own very colourful and expressive mix of the Afrikaans and English language. The characters are personas created by the band. Theres undeniably a severe amount of tongue and cheek here, with a splash of seriousness in between.