Most popular music is at least somewhat fake. Musicians often pose in unrealistic situations for album covers and magazines. Die Antwoord are just taking it to another level with that next level shit.

The realest thing about Die Antwoord is how open they are about their creative process. Many performers put on a public persona. They often want to hide or deny that the public personas are different than their private personas. Die Antwoord, in contrast, are honest about their artificiality, and that honesty strengthens their integrity.

On a purely musical level, Die Antwoord wouldn’t work. They are more of a performance piece, when Ninja’s tattoos and Yolandi Visser’s haircut are included. But they don’t claim otherwise, so this does not undermine their integrity. Also, Ninja’s tattoos are of South African gang symbols, which could be putting him in real danger. Why does he do this? you ask me. Because his style is so motherfuckin’ nasty.

And DJ Hi-Tek’s beats on “Jou ma se Poes in n Fishpaste Jar” are great.

Gwar were fake too, but the metal heads still liked them. It will be interesting to see how the music scene responds to Die Antwoord. The music is real, regardless of the characters it’s based on, and if they have to do extra work to create the aspects of Die Antwoord that aren’t part of their everyday experience, I thank them for it.

“Tell the people from the UK it was real, man. Or if not, say that we’re funky holograms
designed by Neill Blomkamp.” – Ninja, in a Social Stereotype article by Tim Noakes. Read it at
socialstereotype.com (which I just now found out about after writing this post. This is not a plug
for a site).