The world is full of talented musicians, many of which stand out for their fashion sense, their political agenda or purely because they create ground-breaking material. Die Antwoord aren’t any of these, as such, They are, however, one of the most bizarre and creative acts I have seen in a long time; and once you get over the laughs and realise that they aren’t a joke- you get to see that they are really trying to make something completely different from the norm. And, they are.
The South African trio are more of a cultural and artistic project than a hip-hop group, in my opinion. The act have already released an EP free of charge on their website and had their music video become a viral internet smash. Plus, they just appeared at LED festival in the UK last weekend, among other European dates. Plus, they are really getting great popularity, even making the radio playlists of some big radio stations.
Their style is very creepy. “Ninja”, the frontman and rapper, plays a unbalanced, violent man, filled with energy, thoughts and emotion, with a great respect for his heritage. In real life he, after “he lied and cheated his way through high school”, went to live in the highly poor Alexandra Township to smoke “zol” (Cannabis) with the “rastas”. He spend a number of years living down by the river in the township purely smoking and eating boiled cabbage. In “Enter the Ninja”, their music video, he can be seen in a dark, damp and dirty room with his mind- later spitting out fast spoken words and holding no mercy telling listeners. Cue the entry of progeria suffer, Leon Botha for some hard hitting shots, some freely wandering rats and Yo-Landi Vi$$er in a schoolgirl uniform singing. There, and there only is the video. But, the music to go along with it is highly, highly catchy. On first initial listen, it’s drivel- but towards the end, you’re captivated by the group. Then you listen and watch again, you then visit the website and listen more, you learn more, you rinse and, you repeat. They may have a very offensive and alternative style of publicity and presence, but it all adds to the artistic nature. Their website claims that Ninja and Yo-Landi had “a baby by accident” and they are just good friends, because he thinks “chicks are f*cking complicated”, however it’s just part of the act. They have a baby, are married and the child is starting school. This proves that you should enjoy their music and artsy offbeat ways by all means- but don’t read too much into them.
They even played with the electronic mastermind, Aphex Twin, at last weeks festival.
They even released a video talking about themselves and their interests musicially. But this made many of their Cape Town friends dislike them, as speaking about musical interests and lives is somewhat a taboo. It may have upset their mates in the business, but it certainly makes for mindboggling viewing for us.
Die Antwoord won’t set the world alight. They probably won’t explode and become a worldwide sensation, but they will captivate your senses. Check them out, go see them live, enjoy them- do as you will- just don’t take them too seriously.
I’ve just uploaded the first of my mixes, available to listen and stream free of charge. It’s a first for me to do this, so hopefully it goes down well with your musical wants and desires. I have always given copies of gigs to the venues or the organisers upon request, but never have I really put any of my mixes online when not on radio or whatnot. Therefore, I hope you like it.
It’s nothing too serious- just a big, varied and fun 90 set that ranges across many genres. It kick starts with the new banger of a tune from Swedish House Mafia (seen above) with Tinie Tempah- a huge track that marks another great release from the trio. As the mix goes on there are tracks (many of which only newly released) from artists such as Example, M.I.A., Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Alesha Dixon, Princess Superstar, Crookers, Fenech-Soler and many more. I didn’t want to stick to one style, so you’ll get a good mix of synthy-pop, indie-electro, big dance tune rock tracks. It’s just a good blend of songs that you can listen to, with a great summer feel.
The full tracklist is as follows:
- “Miami 2 Ibiza” – Swedish House Mafia Feat. Tinie Tempah
- “Drummer Boy (Yolanda Be Cool & D-Cup Mix)” – Alesha Dixon
- “We No Speak Americano (Original Mix)” – Yolanda Be Cool + Dcup
- “Amazing (Play & Win Mix)” – Inna
- “Green Light” – Roll Deep
- “Exceeder (Felguk Remix)” – Mason
- “Like A G6″ – Far East Movement & Dev
- “Bulletproof (Diggz Remix)” – La Roux
- “I Was Drunk feat. Noze” – Riva Starr
- “Alors on Danse” – Stromae
- “XXXO (Fulton Yard/Rieces Pieces Remix)” – M.I.A. Feat. Jay-Z
- “Won’t Go Quietly (Extended Mix)” – Example
- “Make You Pop (Radio Edit)” – Diplo & Don Diablo
- “Bang Bang Bang (Count & Sinden Remix)” – Mark Ronson & The Business Intl.
- “Heads Will Roll (A-Trak Remix) (Club Mix)” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- “Barbara Streisand (O-God Remix)” – Duck Sauce
- “Let Loose (Radio Edit)” – Ian Carey
- “Dynamite (Ralphi Rosario Edit)” – Taio Cruz
- “All The Lovers (XXXChange Remix)” – Kylie
- “Lollipop (Crookers Remix)” – Princess Superstar
- “Lies” – Fenech-Soler
- “California Gurls (Inner Party System Mix)” – Katy Perry Feat. Snoop Dogg
- “One” – Sky Ferreira
- “One (Your Name) ft. Pharrell Williams” – Swedish House Mafia
- “Billionaire” – Travie Mccoy Feat. Bruno Mars
- “Rude Boy (TC Remix)” – Rihanna
- “Voodoo Sabotage (Beastie Boys vs. The Prodigy)” – The Kleptones
- “Opposite of Adults” – Chiddy Bang
- “Airplanes, Part II (feat. Eminem & Hayley Williams)” – B.o.B
It’s just a nice little mix to help you enjoy the last few weeks of Summer.
To listen to it you must visit my Facebook page, kindly available by clicking- http://www.davidokeeffe.com/music, and selecting the “Music” page. You may need to “like” the page if you’ve not done so already.
Tell me what you think- I’ll be glad to hear your feedback.
I just had to write about this: only minutes ago, rapper 50 Cent (had his Twitter account hacked) started to tweet genuinely bizarre, hilarious and brilliantly disturbing tweets. And, it was is hilarious.
The Grammy nominated and Billboard award winner usually has, it seems, a hard working promotional team who post regular messages on his behalf; be it about shows or CD’s or TV appearances- you know, the usual sort of things you want to tell fans. However, today things were a bit different- 50 (Real name, Curtis James Jackson III) was shouting about how he hates when his Grandmother makes him do chores around the house, how he “busted his ass coming down the steps in the gym” and how he took out the “garbage”. All of these things pointed towards suspicious account activity, but as I write this article I had confirmation that there was no security breach of his account- so these crazy updates are 100% 50.
The tweets, originally thought to have been sent as a hack from music website AllHipHop are filled with bad formatting, spelling and terrible grammar- but this is what makes them beautiful. Sure, Kanye West may LIKE TO SHOUT IN BLOCK CAPITALS ALL THE TIME AND USE LOTS OF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’S, but 50 does things differently- his own style, if you will. Why? ‘Cause he’s so damn fresh.
But we cannot joke about Mr. Cent, after all, he’s being very helpful in telling some serious life-lessons to his 3 million followers, on a variety of topics.
Be aware, there is a great deal of strong language and sexual content.
For example..
50 Cent on romance-
- “I change my mind info I did know we was gone have wips and shit I’m on my to the sex storeNow lol”
50 Cent on playing “Hide & Seek” with the G-Unit-
- “I’m bin laden mother fuckers actin like they can’t find me lol”
50 Cent on being modest-
- “I was just checkin out miss info.tvAnd I don’t like how you been talkin about meSo I decided not to let u ride nyI nick named my dick ny”
50 Cent on politics-
- “Look michelle obama Need I thug in her life fuck that come hereGirl you can be my mentor”
50 Cent on Nicole Richie-
- “Necole bitchie you just hurt my feelings See dat I tried to be nice throw you a little shot Out dam you owe me a apology”
50 Cent on healthcare-
- “If your a rapper and you sold 5,000 cdsYa fat and turn 44 years old you might want Get prostate checked and your colon cleanseMy advice”
50 Cent on Twitter-
- “They set me up man They wasn’t suppose to show me how To use this shit I’m activated no one safe”
50 Cent on safe driving-
- “Oh shit this bitch almost hit my carTwitter almost killed meYou can’t tweet and drive at the same timeIll fuck wit yall later”
50 Cent on Nicole Richie. Again-
- “I got a gun on me now nigga do something I’m Strapped oh that necole bitchie bitch talking Bout me oh its on”
50 Cent on fine cuisine-
- “I’m hungry but I don’t know what I want to eatI want me some chicken no some fish noI just want some pussy I’m not hungry any more”
50 Cent on 50 Cent-
- “I really don’t like when people call me crazy I’m not crazy I’m special and I don’t wish bad on anyone. Learn to love me”
Highly varied, huh? The best bit: these updates were all posted within a few hours. I think @KanyeWest has just lost some followers, ’cause Fiddy’s killing it.
Plus there’s no reason for his promotions team, who gave him access to Twitter in the first place, to be upset at loss of sales or talk about 50′s work- believe me, he’s got his marketing hat on, clearly, as documented in this tweet…
- “Yo yall heard da shit I did with ceelo its hot I spoke to him yesterday he told me he loved itAnd we made it official. Video coming soon”
Update:
50 Cent just posted what food he did eat, in the end. Apparently it was a “Kim K Burger*” (seen below)
*Kim Kardashian, for those of you who may not know. (It’s not her)
. E+OE.