Chatter chatter chatter, the interwebs go. Is Die Antwoord for real?

Are they legitimately ghetto? Or are they really cool art? Are they any good? Will we remember them in time? What’s the deal with the smut?

Personally, I don’t give a (Yo-Landi Vi$$er pet) rat’s arse about the answer to all that.

As rapper Ninja rapped from song one, waving his District 9 Praun arm around last night: “Who’s blowin’ up worldwide, un-fokken-defeated? DIE…..AWWWNT-WOOORD.”

Art is art. Doesn’t matter if it comes in a white romper suit covered in black letters or gold skin-tight-holy-crap-nice-ass-Yo-Landi-leggings. Doesn’t matter if it’s got weird haircuts, mental tattoos or wears baggy holy-crap-Ninja’s-well-hung-and-floppin’-all-about boxers. Doesn’t matter if the beats are cribbed from old techno and video games (hellooooo DDR in “Enter the Ninja”) or the lines come from Ren & Stimpy. Does it? Okay, maybe it does. BECAUSE THAT SHIT IS FUN.

Die Antwoord are fun. Riotous, nuff-respect-speed-rap, jump around, be stupid, and learn how to say your mother’s privates are in a fish paste jar in Afrikaans… FUN! (Jou ma se poes in’n fish paste jar.)

Sound vile? It could be…if you’re like that. Which is cool. Otherwise, you like Die Antwoord. And I do.

Some of us are actually old enough to parent our kids, teach them right from wrong and not be dickheads in real life. Besides, name me one other big-time  South African band that’s gone from zero to $0$ in less than a year and manages to command a crowd comprised of bridge and tunnels, frat boys, hipsters, hip hop kids, potheads, tattooed freaks, goths, girls in heels, guys in baseball caps and more?

Might not have been the most nuclear-brain-melting riot I was expecting for a world-tour-launching gig  (the crowd was utterly feral and I thought Ninja and Yo-Landi would be climbing stacks and give the crowd interaction thing a bit more push). But never-I-mind. They came came in on top and fairly well stayed there. Energy? Mach 10. And extra points for standin’ behind a security guy’s head and sorta floppin’ yer bits at him, Ninja! He didn’t notice! But we did! See? MAXIMUM FUN, jaa.

They raged through the slightly Ozzy-sounding bit of “In Your Face”, crooned the delightful ode (not) to women “She Makes Me a Killer” and stormed through pretty much all of $0$ without taking a breath. “Fish Paste” was as ruuuuude about your moms as you’d expect, and the co-ordinated hand gestures of “Enter the Ninja” were worthy of Sho Kosugi himself.  But the best? The edgy “all the bett-ah to love you with” of “Evil Boy“,  Yo-Landi’s provocative boob-grabbin’ and legging pullin’ down stripshow sideshow on “$copie” and “Beat Boy” and my fave, “Wat Kyk Jy”…which verily blew the roof off the Commodore and into bits.

What’s the deal? Who cares. It’s Die Motherfokken’ Antwoord and it’s Zef so fresh.

All photos by Kris Krüg for BSR. Check out his site Static Photography or contact him at kk@kriskrug.com.