Owing to space constraints in The Times’ print product, not all the weirdness and wonderment of Die Antwoord could fit into an article about the group that appears in Monday’s Calendar section. This online version offers a longer take of that article.

 
 

Since February, the question has become so linked with South African “rave-rap” trio Die Antwoord  that you’d be forgiven for thinking the cuss-word-laden query is actually part of the group’s name.

“Die Antwoord? What the … ?!”

The trio’s name translates as “the answer” in Afrikaans. But that emphatic question has been posed all over the “interwebs” (the group’s misnomer for cyberspace) thanks to Die Antwoord’s hauntingly enigmatic homemade videos “Enter the Ninja” and “Zef Side,” which have become viral supernovas this year, racking up a combined 11 million YouTube views. Puzzlement with the group also reverberated through the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April, where the trio confounded and dazzled festival-goers over the course of a riotous 20-minute set.

According to hard-rhyming, helium-voiced frontwoman Yo-Landi Vi$$er, Die Antwoord is growing increasingly comfortable with causing confusion. “It’s alien, all right?” she said. “It’s not really our problem. And not everyone’s confused.”

Chalk up the head-scratching to the Cape Town trio’s singular synthesis of throw-away cultural effluvia: its bawdy sex rhymes, naked celebration of a uniquely South African white trashiness called “Zef,” its employ of imagery equally inspired by children and the criminally insane as well as the sense of cultivated mystery that has shrouded Die Antwoord for the last nine months.

When they aren’t spitting Afrikaans-accented sex rhymes over “next-level” rave-rap beats, helping pet rats deliver a litter of babies or just generally toying with rabid fans’ sense of reality, the members of Die Antwoord have apparently been laying the groundwork to launch a global musical assault.

After months of speculation, the South African hip-hop trio – which provoked both shock and awe with its galvanizing 20-minute set at Coachella last month -- has reportedly signed a deal with Interscope Records to release its debut album.

Although the group’s label reps did not immediately respond to a request for comment, in keeping with the viral nature of Die Antwoord’s popularity so far, a “Guess What” tab on dieantwoord.com reveals a grainy, 44-second video of front-man Ninja getting a full back tattoo – swords impaling S-shaped serpents, flanking a yin-yang symbol to form the word “$O$.” Not coincidentally, this is also the name of the 17-track mix-tape that streamed until recently on the website.  

According to the video, a 23-track version of “$O$” will be dropping “soon on Interscope Records.”

Angeleno fans can decide for themselves on July 17, when Die Antwoord takes the stage at Los Angeles State Historic Park, as part of the lineup for Hard L.A., appearing alongside more established acts including N.E.R.D., Sleigh Bells, M.I.A. and Flying Lotus.

-- Chris Lee

Photo: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

If we haven't already convinced you that Die Antwoord are the mulleted, Pink-Floyd-boxer-clad saviors of everything good and right about music, then you can go take a proverbial walk off a proverbial pier. But if we have won you over with our treatises to the South African "phat rap-rave" trio, you'll be pleased to know that July 17's HARD Festival at Los Angeles State Historic Park just got significantly more Zef.

The festival just added Die Antwoord and the equally Fres (but decidedly less Zef) Flying Lotus, Sleigh Bells and N.E.R.D. to an already packed lineup headlined by M.I.A., who will hopefully not be exacting vengeance on redheads that night. Tickets are on sale now for $60, and I'd be willing to barter a couple for a Die Antwood sweatsuit, as seen above on the ever-fun-to-type Yo-Landi Vi$$er. 

-- August Brown

Photo credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

[UPDATE] Added the date of HARD L.A. and corrected Yo-Landi Vi$$er's last name. Least Zef typo ever.