Die Antwoord - Enter the Ninja

Die Antwoord was a “rap-rave” group that originated in Cape Town, South Africa. I’m personally not a fan of their gimmick, but the critical reaction for their unique glorification of the South African “Zef” culture was extremely positive, so much so that they became very popular in music magazines and online publications. Their rapid rise to popularity among “hipster” music circles was very interesting in that their music is very “trashy” and a celebration of this foreign culture that usually gets little to no attention in the West. Enter the Ninja was released in 2009 and very quickly became a sensation, with people all over praising their unique music and culture. An interesting note is that it was revealed earlier this year that Die Antwoord was actually a group of art students who were putting up an “act,” and they were parodying the extremes and excesses of the culture, although not in a negative way.

Sidenote: Leon Botha, the sufferer of progeria featured in the Enter the Ninja video died a few days ago, which reminded me of this group and I figured they were actually pretty relevant to this blog.