Die Antwoord commentary

Some musical acts leave a rich first impression. I remember seeing the video for "Sweet Child O' Mine" and staring with my mouth agape. The first time I heard "Praise You," I wanted it to never end. In the same vein, the first time I watched Die Antwoord's promo video "Zef Side" I froze in my tracks and watched it a second time for clues as to whether these people were serious or joking. I felt confused, intrigued and mildly dirty, like the first time that I ate one of those sandwiches that has french fries and cole slaw on it.

Needless to say, like many of my fellow avid listeners, I had to know more. I watched the video for "Enter The Ninja" and still couldn't figure out if they were serious. I went to the eponymous website, listened to the album, and talked about it with a fellow new fan. This band came out of nowhere, and spread news of their existence one url at a time. No radio. No mainstream video (wait, is youtube mainstream?). Just a handful of highly stylized videos and a provocative, addictive website. That's the brilliance here. Die Antwoord's web presence is more than enough to set this band up for worldwide fame, but that's not my favorite part of the story. Here's where it becomes the model for the rock band of the future: In my head, I've already purchased the CD, the concert ticket and the t-shirt, and these items aren't even yet available for purchase. If they get their timing right with those things, they'll be rock tycoons: leaders of a new generation of hybridized, stylized multimedia acts manifesting pre-distributed without "major" labels.

To a certain extent the medium is the message, and how and why I came to experience Die Antwoord matters as much as what I hear and see here. That being said, this music is fantastic. Shot through with the influence of nearly every contemporary music form, "$O$" is energetic and surprising. Vocalists Ninja and Yo-Landi give us attitude the entire time, and they do it with such color and humor that I can't help but feel enchanted. Lines like, "You should've known better than to fuck with a ninja with an attitude" tell me that this group knows exactly what it's doing in constructing this musical experience, and is having a great time in the process.