The duo are direct and unflinching in their statements and are willing to embody and experiment with different personae, even within a single album.
These three tracks-similar in idea but different in mode of expression-represent what makes Die Antwoord both attractive and deterring to listeners. Her high-pitched, girlish vocals also add a haunting effect to “Do Not Fuk Wif Da Kid,” a brief interlude in which Yolandi issues threats to disparagers in a tone fit for a horror film. Yolandi espouses bold sentiments like “We live the life we love / We love the life we live” and “Fuck your rules / Who are you to tell me?” and dexterously adds fire to her words by emphasizing certain parts with rage-filled gusto and a raised voice. On “Happy Go Sucky Fucky,” the band shows pride for their actions and criticizes any naysayers. The Mafia-esque delivery sets a defiant tone for many of the later songs. “Donker Mag” opens with “Don’t Fuk Me,” a 28-second track in which Ninja calls Tony Ciulla, Die Antwoord’s manager, and warns him to never “try to fuck” Ninja. This abrasive attitude is evident from the album’s beginning. The jab is even more daring considering the band’s shaky past with Gaga that erupted into a brief Twitter battle. Most distinct, however, are the displays of audacity in many of its songs, including “Raging Zef Boner.” Not only does the song title allude to the group’s bold championing of zef, but the song also parodies Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.” In the chorus, Ninja declares “It’s not my fault / I was born this way” to an electronic beat eerily reminiscent of Gaga’s hit anthem. When Die Antwoord released a music video to “Enter the Ninja” in 2009, they went viral and garnered a reputation as an outrageous performance art group, satirical collective, and embodiment of zef, a South African counter-culture movement described by vocalist Ninja as “the underbelly of the Afrikaans culture.” Met with distaste, adoration, and confusion, the South African rap-rave group is a cheeky tour de force-and this in-your-face, caustic spirit continues in “Donker Mag” (which means “dark power” in Afrikaans) with mixed results.ĭie Antwoord’s latest album is replete with Yolandi Visser’s helium-voiced singing, Ninja’s intrepid raps, DJ Hi-Tek’s energetic beats, an ingenious mix of English and Afrikaans, and tongue-in-cheek humor.