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They're conceptual artists before they're musicians, so they are thinking about the responses they provoke."ĭie Antwoord's early video "Enter the Ninja" had a disturbingly macabre feel, with rats crawling around Yo-Landi's bed and Ninja's neck, as well as a memorable turn by Leon Botha, a South African artist who suffers from progeria, a rapid-aging disease that makes his head appear unusually large. That's not something that a lot of music videos do, and there's value in that," adds David Marchese, a Spin senior writer who has written extensively about the band. "You might find their music videos offensive or off-putting or supercompelling, but your reactions to them are probably telling about some deeper feelings you have about race or rap or class or South Africa. The band is walking a tough line previously walked by artists from Ice-T to Eminem: On one hand they're provocateurs, clearly aiming to offend people, and on the other they want to sell records to kids of all ages. On one song, Hi-Tek sprays slurs against gays and women indiscriminately. On their latest album, this year's "Ten$ion," Die Antwoord descends into depths of profanity as intense as any gangsta rapper. "We're getting a lot of history lessons in the last 24 hours. I'm going to be wearing red shorts, I'm going to be painted white it'll go very well and stick out against a colorful background," he says in his thick Afrikaans accent. "She has this supernatural look, and your eye gets sucked into Yo-Landi into this dark room.
![die antwoord enter the ninja disease die antwoord enter the ninja disease](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-39UEvynGdao/Teafw2Wl66I/AAAAAAAADFY/nDCpMZBC-d4/s1600/die1.jpg)
On speakerphone with Yo-Landi from a tour stop somewhere in Kansas, Ninja dismisses the blackface concerns as an American issue that isn't relevant to South Africa (despite its apartheid past). Shock is crucial: In "Fatty Boom Boom," Yo-Landi dresses head to toe in blackface. Their raps are aggressive, fast-paced and offensive, albeit with a sophisticated sense of cadence and melody, and DJ Hi-Tek provides crushing electro-beats and sound effects recalling Prodigy and Rammstein. Yo-Landi has an almost disturbingly pale face and a blond mullet Ninja looks like an emaciated Eminem.