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Who knew a band where a hill billy and some albino pygmy child thing would be so insanely unfunny and untalented
| >> | No.54208761
>>54207252
The aim of Die Antwoord is to embody post apartheid South African culture, in all its contradictions and schizophrenia, and present it to the world (and to those back at home, as a mirror). The foundations of Die Antwoord are laid out on Whatever Man. Ninja aims to merge all the various South African cultures and ethnicities into one person. That includes blacks and coloureds, Afrikaans and English etc.
After apartheid, South Africa was kind of thrown into a kaleidoscope of cultures and identities trying to find their way/gel with others. A lot of racists and ignorants wanted whites with whites, coloureds with coloureds etc. Basically no integration. As time went on, people pretended that those wounds of apartheid were healed and gone. A white man wouldn't call someone a nigger in public maybe, but he'd go home and complain about the nigger to his wife. The hatred was still there, just not out in the open. Die Antwoord basically comes in and says "we're South African culture personified. All South African cultures can exist together, even it's a bit crazy. We're examples of this". This gets a lot of people angry. Ninja, a white man, wearing prison tattoos? Saying "I'm a coloured"? Embracing a lower class Afrikaans culture? I think this threw a spanner into the works of a lot people. DA were labelled as racist, exploitative, mocking. Ultimately, they're none of these things, but it provoked many 'think pieces' and discussion, which was much needed. In the same way Max Normal was "intricately designed to blow the fuck up", Die Antwoord were made to provoke (which in turn helped them blow up). And they did both in the process of making a country talk, if only for a while. The core thesis of Die Antwoord is "we can all exist together".
I think Watkin has always been sorry that he's never created music that's truly reflective of South Africa. Die Antwoord is his attempt to justify that.
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| >> | No.54209074
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 >>54208761
On a conceptual, political level, that's what I get from Die Antwoord. Which is more than can be said for Max Normal, as much as I love it. But so fucking what? It doesn't make me enjoy any less or more.
Anyways, as time's gone on Die Antwoord have expanded Zef from a obscure Afrikaans slur to a counter cultural movement. Their music has largely gotten better, and their ideas stronger, even if they're divorced from South Africa a bit more. It's more personal now than political (not to say it was ever strictly political).
All the rambling I've been doing is pretty much spelled out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN9AYg84qAU
Ninja takes the form of one of Jane Alexander's 'Butcher Boys' creatures. The idea behind this work is that the monsters of apartheid, even in this relative peace, are still there, lurking, ready to come back at any second. It's unsettling. Yolandi, an angel like figure, plunges her claws into Ninja's heart and kills him. She is killing the ghost of apartheid, rendering him useless in his attempt to drag South Africa into the past.
It all reminds me of this line from the Constructus Corporation:
"Now while I'm asking you this I'm kind of assuming
You know that every cultural revolution is sparked by an art movement".
Die Antwoord are not super deep. They primarily make explosive, fun pop music told through personal experience and sprinkled with Zef/South Africa. But I they're not brainless either, and I just wanted to offer a different perspective.
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