So: Die Antwoord totally wear blackface in their new video. Awesome, right? That’s really exactly what we all needed to see today. Or, to clarify, they wear full-body paint that, in at least a couple of instances, looks a whole lot like blackface. Also, there’s a Lady Gaga impersonator who has her tour van hijacked, gives birth to an insect, and gets eaten by a lion. I don’t even know what to say at this point. NSFW, I guess? It’s below. Go ahead. Do what you need to do.
Ten$ion is out now on Zef Recordz.
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“NSFW!!11 eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww”
You hipster bitches cannot handle Die Antwoord and their South African reality.
White hipsters falling over yourselves to prove how not-racist you are: read Jelani Cobb’s latest piece in the New Yorker and take a good hard look at yourselves. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/10/barack-obama-and-malcolm-x.html
This hipster just saw Die Antwoord at ACL and they were awesommmmmme.
Not that Die Antwoord is ever going for anything short of completely over the top, but blackface is always tasteless, even if used satirically. I guess that’s the point? I dunno.
I think it’s meant to be tasteless, and I’m pretty certain it’s a reference to golliwoggs (blackface ragdolls that were really popular well into the 70′s). From the tone of the rest of the video, I’d venture the guess it was meant to point out how superficially Gaga and her like view Die Antwoord, and by extension South Africa in general. The hyenas eating the garbage, the lion on the street corner, the dudes with guns. These are all stereotypes about Africa that are pretty prevalent here, across the pond. The video was a really in your face “up yours” to how Western elites perceive South Africa, Die Antwoord, and what they’re all about.
BRAVO.
Yeah, I mean I get it. I just don’t think it is any white person’s place to appropriate such a loaded image– a symbol of centuries of racial oppression in both American and South African cultural histories– for their own artistic and commercial use unless they REALLY had something to say about it. But they just use it to attack Lady Gaga, and the lyrics are just about how they think a lot of music is shitty. I’m a fan of being offended and uncomfortable by art, because it can very often be thought-provoking. This, however, doesn’t seem to be worth the shock value.
I have such a pet peeve for people who downvote without adding to the conversation. I’m not being dismissive or mean-spirited. I like discussing this stuff. Accompany your downvote with an argument, anonymous downvoter!
Let Ninja explain it to you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4Bt1cMEupQ
Love.
Well I don’t like it. And I guess I can’t handle South African reality (white people appropriating black culture).
I’ll just leave this little comment from Ninja here:
“Fuck the no game-having, intellectuals out there … Our style is straight up Malema versus Zuma. Everyday man. We appeal to the man in the street. We make pop music. We don’t make intellectual music. Our shit is hostile takeover shit. What the fuck you going to do about it? Nothing!”
Die Antwoord is actually playing at The Roseland Ballroom in the beginning of November. Go check ‘em out, and get more info here – http://donyc.com/event/2012/11/02/sonar-tour
To call this blackface just makes you seem misinformed about what blackface actually is.
they also use “white-face”. but no one seems to care about that.
How did you not mention the painting of nicki minaj in the background with horns.