Shameless Creations

Last week my mind was blown. I watched this short video on YouTube called, Zef Side. I didn’t know what I was seeing at first. (I was seeing The Answer.) I couldn’t stop watching. (You can’t stop watching, can you?) I watched that video a few times. There is something completely amazing about it. The girl, the rapping, the Dark Side of the Moon boxers. I was held to the screen, totally electrified. I thought, “Where ARE these people?”

I clicked on a video on the sidebar, “Enter the Ninja–Dirty Version” (I always go for the dirty version, just so you know. I haven’t seen any other version of this vid, actually.) while I looked up Die Antwoord on Google. I stopped reading as soon as the song got going and had to watch the vid. At the beginning of the video we learn that they’re from South Africa, how the culture is a lot of different things, and that it’s, “all these different things, all these different people, fucked into one person.”

I watched it about five times, and then looked up the lyrics to read the Afrikaans I was hearing. It’s almost familiar, but not enough to know what the hell is being said if you don’t know the language. After opening a few sites with lists of SA slang and lists of words for tourists and children, I went back to Google and found out who Die Antwoord is. I found articles by the South African online journal, Mahala. That’s their photo down there.

This is where I learned that there’s some controversary surrounding the group and their authenticity. By the time I discovered that some people in South Africa are angry with them, and calling them fake and the likes, I didn’t care one bit who the group were or had been, I was totally and completely hooked on Die Antwoord.

Yes, there’s controversy surrounding the lead of the group. He had another name at another time in the music industry. People say that he’s not from where he says he is… other things. NINJA is awesome. No matter what might be said about him. Listen to him. Just listen. And watch. It doesn’t matter where he comes from. He’s an entertainer.

And Yo-landi? “Keep that perfect beat, boy.” There is no one radder in the entire world. Seriously. She’s got something that just blasts through you and wrecks whoever you were before you experienced her hyper-cool, badass butterfly self. Yo Yo Yo Yo-landi.

The crap about their authenticity doesn’t matter to me, and fortunately, not to a lot of people. They’ve taken the world by storm. Every day they gain a thousand fans on facebook. I’ll bet that every day thousands of people across the world, just like me, read about South Africa and its culture. I’ve spent the past five days learning more than I ever have about that country.

It’s not the first time I’ve been exposed to SA. I’ve had friends who live there. It’s just the first time that I’ve been motivated to dig into what makes the place groove. I’m learning about the music scene there, the styles, the people and their motivations. I’m learning words and the concepts behind them. I know I’m not alone in this. While Die Antwoord’s music plays in the background, I click through articles and entries all about South Africa. No matter who they are, this group has raised awareness about their country in an extremely positive way.

So if Ninja and the rest of the $O$ crew come from the zef side, or not, it doesn’t matter. (They’ve got a new zef flow, and that’s all I need to know. I don’t care where they grew up.) They’re coming from South Africa, and representing the country with fresh, crazy, “next-level beats” and cool, freaky style. They’re completely authentic. And bad ass.

AND they give it away.

You can listen to all their music on their site. You can download it all for free.

Because not only does Die Antwoord completely ROCK, but they’re SMART and motivated by love of their art beyond what it can do for them in the world. AND they’re honest enough to let us know that that’s what they’re doing.

They remind me so much of my bizarro family.

I’m finding whatever music of theirs I can and spending my days soaking in it. Not much takes me like these groove-masters have.

Give The Answer your ears and heart for five minutes and I imagine that they’ll have you as hooked as they have me. I’ve been watching it happen.

NINJA, Yo-landi, DJ Hi-Tek–thank you for bringing your music, your comedy, your culture, your parody, and your way of looking at things into our worlds. South Africa, thank you for tolerating our ignorance, and our genuine (hopefully not too annoying) desire to suddenly know all about you. Even if we can’t quite fully understand stuff like “sewing machine”. 

No matter where we are, I believe that Die Antwoord is just what their name says.

Check out their facebook fanpage. Die Antwoord

Then check out our little Zane in their fan photos. He wanted to look like Ninja while he hit the mark with him on his jams like, “Yin to the Yang, totally Hi-Tek, Ninja’s motherfuckin’ big in Japan. I’ve seen the future but I’ve never got a thing in my hand, except a microphone, big dreams, and a plan. Fly-talkin’. Sky-walkin’. Like a NINJA!”