Die Antwoord (Afrikaans for "The Answer")[1] is a hip hop[2] group from Cape Town, South Africa, consisting of three members: Ninja, Yo-Landi Vi$$er and DJ Hi-Tek.Die Antwoord lead vocalist Ninja (born Watkin Tudor Jones) was part of the South African hip-hop scene for many years, fronting acts such as The Original Evergreens, MaxNormal.TV and The Constructus Corporation.[3] He is known for adopting different stage personas. In the case of Die Antwoord, his persona is Ninja: a vulgar and aggressive character who is very different from his previous incarnations. When asked whether Ninja was a character he said, "Ninja is, how can I say, like Superman is to Clark Kent. The only difference is, I don't take off this fokken Superman suit."[4]
Die Antwoord was created as a group in 2008, consisting of performers Ninja, Yo-Landi Vi$$er (Yolandi Visser), and DJ Hi-Tek.[5] Their debut album $O$ was made available as a free download on their official website.[6] $O$ features Cape Flats rappers Garlic Brown (aka Knoffel Bruin), Scallywag and Isaac Mutant, and Jack Parow and Jaak Paarl (aka Jaak). In 2009 South African cinematographer Rob Malpage (along with co-director Ninja) shot the video for their single "Enter the Ninja."[7] The video became popular on the internet nine months later, delivering millions of hits to the official Die Antwoord website. Their original South African hosting provider, Hetzner, disabled their hosting account following massive bandwidth overage caused by the traffic following the site launch.[5] The group was forced to move their website to a US-based hosting provider to handle the traffic. The "Enter The Ninja" video also features the late Leon Botha, a prominent Cape Town artist who was one of the world's oldest and most well known survivors of progeria.[8]. Following the success of the video, Ninja and Yo-Landi were flown business class to Los Angeles where they signed record deal with Interscope Records, home of artists including Dr Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Marilyn Manson and Lady Gaga. In April 2010, Die Antwoord performed their first international concert at the Coachella Music Festival in Palm Springs, California, in front of 40,000 people.
Following this, Die Antwoord went on to perform songs from their debut album, $O$, over the United States (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Texas, Nashville, Washington D.C, Baltimore, Seattle, Portland, and Atlanta). They went on to perform in Canada, UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, France, Spain, Belgium, The Netherlands, Hungary, Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, Serbia, Poland, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan.[9]
At the end of 2010, Die Antwoord won the Myspace 'Best Music Video of 2010' award for their debut video, Enter The Ninja.[10]
In November 2011, Die Antwoord left Interscope Records over a dispute concerning their upcoming album and its lead single, Fok Julle Naaiers.[11] Die Antwoord formed their own independent label, Zef Recordz, and will release their new album through it.[12]