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Die Antwoord (South Africa)
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January 31, 20:00
Adrenaline Stadium 
Coming from Cape Town, South Africa, the hip-hop duo Die Antwoord struck Internet viral gold with their video hit "Enter the Ninja," but they're really conceptual artists Watkin Tudor Jones and Yo-Landi ViSSer presenting their "inner zef." Before assuming the roles of Ninja and Yo-landi ViSSer for die Antwoord, the two were involved with satirical projects like MaxNormal.TV - who wore three-piece business suits and delivered motivational hip-hop - and the Constructus Corporation: a hip-hop fantasy group based around a comic book called the Ziggurat. The idea for a more vulgar rave-rap group began in 2008, but it wasn't until a year later that die Antwoord - which is Afrikaans for "The Answer" - began playing live.
Their stage show was outrageous with Yo-Landi baiting and flipping off the audience, while Ninja rapped and danced, wearing only his trademark Dark Side of the Moon boxer shorts. That same year they recorded their debut album, SOS, and introduced "Zef," which fused hip-hop, electro, and rave music. A year later, the videos they created for the tracks "Zef Side" and "Enter the Ninja" became viral hits. The latter featured Leon Botha, an experimental South African artist and one of the world's oldest survivors of the premature aging disease progeria, who appeared as the group's DJ. "Enter the Ninja" cracked the British Top 40, and major-label Interscope soon signed the group and released their 5 EP in July of 2010.
In October 2010, the label released a revised SOS with a world tour following. The group left Interscope the next year when the two parties couldn't come to terms on their next album's lead single. Left to their own devices, Die Antwoord chose "Fok Julle Naaiers" as the lead single to TenSion, their sophomore album released by their own Zef Recordz and distributed by the Diplo-associated imprint Downtown.
In November 2014 Sony debuted the first trailer for the new movie from Neill Blomkamp, titled Chappie, which tells the story of a young robot being brought into a brutal world. Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er from Die Antwoord were in the cast since they were included in the early production announcements last year along with Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver and Sharlto Copley (as the voice of Chappie). According the trailer it seems they are main characters with a key role in the plot.
Die Antwoord distinguish themselves by creating music videos way out of the ordinary in terms of characters, content and visuals. As creative as they are, they also stir up controversy because of their personalities, by crossing lines, and by being extraordinarily freaky, gory, silly, weird and sometimes just plain crazy. Whereas "Ugly Boy" is in the silly and ironic category, the video "Pitbull Terrier" (which came out earlier this year) is an example of their passion for scary and bloody visuals.
To develop their creative ambitions they worked with many different artists. They have collaborated with clothing designers Alexander Wang & Joel Jansevan Vuuren and videographers Hamony Korine ("Umshini Wam") & Neill Blomkamp ("Chappie"), but the biggest influence and collaboration has been with photographer/artist Roger Ballen. Roger Ballen is known for his black-and-white pictures of abnormal-looking people in raw environments with painted walls and animals crawling around. He helped Die Antwoord design and co-direct several of their music videos: "Wat Pomp," "Enter The Ninja" and "I Fink U Freeky," and similar stylistic features are also seen in "Fok Julle Naaiers" and "Evil Boy" ft. Diplo.
In Moscow Die Antwoord is coming with their new album Donker Mag which was released on June 3rd, 2014 by Zef Records. The album's lead single was "Cookie Thumper!". Donker Mag finds Watkin Tudor Jones and Yo-Landi ViSSer plying similar ground to their first two: "It's a punishing set of disjointed beats, crass profanities ("raging zef boner") and overstuffed artificial components. There's a stale whiff of deja vu to their rap-rave dubstep smackdowns, from the quick-fire Xhosa chants on "Girl I Want to Eat You" to short monologue-style interludes like the distasteful "Pompie" and the delusional "Zars."
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