Quick to the point; to the point, no faking – Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby
First they gave us the answer, and now they give us the question. If Alex Trebek would be proud, many others are left puzzled by the bizarre electro hip-hop antics of Die Antwoord, the South African satirists and darndest things.
Die Antwoord (Afrikaans for The Answer) is the Cape Town creation of Waddy Jones, a curious hip-hop chameleon in the spirit of Norman (Fatboy Slim) Cook. Jones’s persona is of a nastier Vanilla Ice. His cohorts are the brutish beat-maker DJ Hi-Tek and Yo-Landi Vi$$er, the potty-mouthed, shark-eyed, imp-alien Yolita.
With its debut album, $0$, the shock attack began. Die Antwoord was presented as a savage rap outfit from deepest and dirtiest South Africa. It didn’t take long before the press began to suspect fakery. New Musical Express branded the band and its “zef” genre as South Africa’s “biggest non-existent scene.” The argument was on as to whether Die Antwoord was brilliant or awful. (Nothing in between, please, because what would be the point?)
The biggest change over the past two years is that Die Antwoord split from its major label, Interscope, over creative control, possibly having to do with the lyric filth.
Ten$ion, streaming here, is similar in most ways to $0$, though perhaps more playful and self-aware in its blingy Ali-G business. “I feel sorry for people who need to ask us: Is it real?” Ninja told the New York Times recently. And so, on with the show.
A folk-music sample grandly ushers in the lead track Never Le Nkemise 1, setting up the whiplash of Ninja, who channels the forgotten dance band EMF when he changes “I’m unbelievable” to “I’m indestructible, gangsta number-one.” With the thick synths and a Billy Corgan sneer, the sound is vintage Smashing Pumpkins.
Yo-Landi stars in I Fink You Freaky, a shuttering electro-dance track featuring her breathy mew and an oft-repeated line, “I fink you freaky, and I like you a lot.”
Ninja raps a bit, urging us to jump. Jump, Ninja? You first, man, we’re right behind you.
Hey Sexy is a wild mix of drones, intersecting voices, Afrikaans rap and “whoop, whoop, whoop.” The first Major League Baseball player who uses this romp as their walk-up-to-the-plate music is my hero for life.
Pop culture references happen: Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now appears, and on the playful Fatty Boom Boom, which bemoans the derivative state of hip hop, there are ironic allusions to Eminem’s Slim Shady persona (My Name Is) and Vanilla Ice (“I do not want to stop, collaborate or listen”).
DJ Hi-Tek Rulez is subtle as a prison rape, and seems to concern the same. It’s quite ugly. So What, which parodies the brooding Drake-types, recalls the silliness of the jailbreak musical number from Austin Powers in Goldmember.
By the thumping, galloping, album-ending reprise Never Le Nkemise 2, you’re wondering what the question was, never mind the answer. Ninja proclaims that Die Antwoord has its own system and its own rules. “We keep it gangsta,” he vows in mock seriousness. We don’t believe it – not from him, and not from the supposed real thing. And maybe that’s the point.
Ten$ion
- Die Antwoord
- Zef
Die Antwoord plays Toronto’s Phoenix Theatre, Feb. 14; and Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom, Feb. 19.
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