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Die Antwoord is a South African alternative hip hop group formed in Cape Town in 2008. 

The group consists of rappers Ninja (Watkin Tudor Jones) and YolandiVisser (Anri du Toit), a male/female duo, and producers HITEK5000 and Lil2Hood. Their image revolves around the South African counterculture movement known as zef and has incorporated work by other artists associated with the movement, such as photographer Roger Ballen.

Die Antwoord has had mainstream success worldwide. Their albums and singles have charted in the top 50—if not top 10—in countries in Europe and North America, and also Australia. Their music has been featured on best-selling video games in the Far Cry franchise as well. One of their earliest songs, “Enter the Ninja”, did well in Australia and the UK, while later songs like “Pitbull Terrier” and “Ugly Boy” did well in the US. Their 2016 album peaked at a higher chart position in nearly every country than their previous 2014 album.

Die Antwoord formed in 2008.Their name is Afrikaans for ‘The Answer’. Their debut album, $O$, was made available as a free download on their official website.A song from the album, “WieMaak die JolVol”, features Cape Flats rappers Garlic Brown (a.k.a. Knoffel Bruin), Scallywag, Isaac Mutant, and Jaak Paarl. “Wat Pomp?” features South African rapper Jack Parow. He is also featured in “DoosDronk” along with Fokofpolisiekar. The album cover was shot by photographer Clayton James Cubitt.

In 2009 South African cinematographer Rob Malpage (along with co-director Ninja) shot the video for their single “Enter the Ninja”.The song incorporates elements of Smile.dk’s song “Butterfly”, famous for appearing in the Dance Dance Revolution series. The video features Cape Town artist and turntablist Leon Botha.The video received millions of views online nine months later, which featured on a number of high-traffic blog sites, most notably BoingBoing. This forced them to move their website to a US-based hosting provider to handle the traffic.

Following the success of the video, Die Antwoord signed a record deal with Interscope Records. In April 2010, they performed their first international concert at the Coachella Music Festival, in front of 40,000 people. They then toured internationally in support of $O$.The EP “5” was the first official release by Die Antwoord on a major record label, Cherrytree Records (an imprint of Interscope Records). The EP features some previously released material, as well as one new track and a remix. “Fish Paste” was released as a promotional single. Pitchfork Media made the entire EP available to stream on 12 June 2010.

Later in 2010, an EP titled Ekstra was released.Shortly after, they joined the 2011 Big Day Out circuit, which took them to New Zealand and Australia, sharing back-to-back sold-out sideshows with M.I.A.At the end of 2010, Die Antwoord won the Myspace Best Music Video of 2010 award for their debut video, “Enter the Ninja”.

 

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Die Antwoord