I told Ninja I wanted something more poisonous. How did the look come about? YV: People on the streets where we live used to call me Blondie and Britney, and it used to irritate me. Yo-Landi, who does your hair? YV: Ninja cuts it. It’s putting things together you think are cool. People try to say it’s like trash, but it’s not really trash. You’ll get a kid in Liberia wearing a Tupac T-shirt, and for us that’s zef. We made it our thing.Ĭan you describe the look? N: It’s kind of like apocalyptic debris. It was something people were shy or scared of-they swept it under the carpet. But for us, although it is kind of a negative word, we started just… YV: Flipping it. The conservative people use it to dis lower-class people. One is very conservative and stiff, and the other, the underbelly of that, is zef. You call it “zef”-which is what, exactly? N: The Afrikaners have these different cultures. Well, you come off as pretty aggressive-and weird. I have to admit, I’m a little scared of you guys. In the meantime, they’re producing their own movie, a trippy feature titled The Answer, due out later this year. According to the band’s publicist, director David Fincher approached Vi$$er to audition for the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo franchise (she declined) David Lynch invited them for cappuccino at his house (they accepted) and in November, Harmony Korine filmed an extended music video for them. Ninja, a heavily tattooed Vanilla Ice look-alike who has served time in prison, and his platinum-haired pixie sidekick have since been signed to Interscope (home of Marilyn Manson and Lady Gaga) and caught the attention of Hollywood.

They also transformed the obscure “rap-rave” act from suburban Cape Town into the biggest pop sensation ever to come out of South Africa.

It was February 1, 2010, when online magazine Boing Boing first posted the music videos for Die Antwoord’s “Zef Side” and “Enter the Ninja.” Featuring an oddly comical interview with bandmates Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er-along with a dancing man with progeria (the genetic condition marked by premature aging) and a haunting chorus (“I, I, I/I am your butterfly”)-the clips went viral, garnering the band’s website more than 15 million hits within the month.

Enter the ninja musikvideo