Die Antwoord (Afrikaans: "The Answer") is a hip-hop act from Cape Town, South Africa consisting of three members, Ninja, Yo-Landi Vi$$er and DJ Hi-Tek.Die Antwoord lead vocalist Ninja (born Watkin Tudor Jones) was a part of the South African hip-hop scene for many years, fronting such acts as The Original Evergreens, Max Normal, Fucknrad and The Constructus Corporation. He is known for adopting different stage personas. In the case of Die Antwoord his persona is Ninja: a hyper violent character who is very different from his previous incarnations.Die Antwoord was later created as a group in 2009, consisting of performers Ninja, Yo-Landi Vi$$er, and DJ Hi-Tek. Their debut album $O$ was made available as a free download on their official website. In 2009 South African cinematographer Rob Malpage (along with co-director Ninja) shot the video for their single "Enter the Ninja." The video became a viral phenomenon on the internet nine months later, delivering so much traffic to their official website that their original provider shut down their account, forcing them to move their hosting to a US-based provider to handle the traffic. The "Enter The Ninja" video also features South African progeria survivor Leon Botha, a prominent Cape Town artist.Die Antwoord performs "Zef" music, Zef being an Afrikaans slang term which loosely translates to the American equivalent of "Redneck". Their lyrics are performed in both Afrikaans and English.
The majority of their debut album, $O$, was released for free on the Internet in 2009 - Ninja also handed out free albums with hand-drawn artwork at live shows called $O$: Burnt By the Master.
As of Q4 2009, the band were 'officially' set to be working with Magnetron Music and were due to release a very special, limited-edition package for 2010 featuring the album, a DVD and a book. Die Antwoord's $O$ Album/DVD/Book package had a European release pending (featuring photography by Roger Ballen).
But, it is impossible to buy their music anywhere, it seems...
This was until Boing Boing posted their music video for 'Enter The Ninja', that they shot ahead of big-name acts on Google Trends. This, coupled with Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst and Katy Perry 'tweeting' about the group, caused a massive influx of interest in the band from various record labels worldwide with Ninja being quoted as saying ""Live Nation, the biggest events company in the world, wants to make a deal with us. There's an international bidding war going on at the moment over who's going to represent us. EMI Worldwide and Interscope Universal are bidding for my soul."
Regardless of who ends up signing them, the forth-coming debut album is currently now available to stream online in full and there's a free download titled 'Jou Ma Se Poes in 'n Fishpaste Jar'.
Find out more at http://www.dieantwoord.com/, http://myspace.com/dieantwoord, http://facebook.com/dieantwoord, http://twitter.com/dieantwoord and Wikipedia.
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