Die Antwoord have released yet another single from their soon-to-come album Mount Ninja and Da Nice Time Kid, expected to drop September 16 under their self-created label Zef. It is titled “Fat Faded Fuck Face”, and it meets the expectation of intensity and hostility one can assume from the name alone.
The track, which was produced by DJ Muggs, stays true to the group’s zef-rap-rave sound, but with a sound synonymous with trap-rap. You hear Yo-Landi’s sweetly demonic voice yelling Afrikaan obscenities in the background, while a sedated-sounding Ninja balances her rage with some relaxed yet raw rhymes.
Although their romantically intriguing yet ambiguously psychotic musical chemistry seems to occur naturally, Die Antwoord have made an effort to avoid a mainstream sound while still managing to be well-received all over the world. In an interview, Ninja says “Pop is disposable… [when] we make pop it has got like a shelf life, and we don’t wanna just burn [out].”
Maybe they chose to release this more hateful song as a form of foreshadowing, because according to Pitchfork they simultaneously announced their projected breakup date of September 2017. In an interview with Exclaim!, Ninja claims he “feels beautiful about it” and “is not scared” of the end of Die Antwoord.
The news came as a shock to fans all over the globe, as the group has shown no apparent signs of potential disintegration. In fact, this has been one of the busiest years of their music career by far. Since their last mixtape alone, Suck on This, released May 16 of this year, they have doled out a series of singles from their upcoming fourth – and most likely their last – full-length album, including Banana Brains.
They plan on holding it together until next year in order to see their most recent project through; they are currently working on an “African gangsta movie”, titled South African Ninja. The film is apparently fictitious, but paradoxically documentary-esque. Ninja told Exclaim!, “…it’s hard and raw, and everything has some parallel to our lives, so it’s got a surreal connection to everything.”
They also have an exhibition planned for next year in their hometown of Cape Town, South Africa at the Museum of Modern Contemporary Art before their pre-meditated demise.
Following the upcoming release of Mount Ninja and Da Nice Kid, the group will be touring the United States, beginning September 21st when they will be playing with Crystal Castles at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, California. They will also be a part of Austin City Limits Music Festival, along with Radiohead, Mumford and Sons, Kendrick Lamar, and more.
9/10/16 UPDATE: Yolanda Visser Denies Breakup, Saying “DIE ANTWOORD FOR EVA”
Die Antwoord fans can rest easy, as recent news of the groups imminent demise has been quickly laid to rest.
According to Visser’s Instagram, the recent news originating from an interview the group did with Daryl Keating of Exclaim! was in fact just a mistake on the journalist’s part. Yolandi claims he “totally twisted [their] words and took what [they] said out of context”.
To be fair, both Yolanda and Ninja have made statements that could have been rephrased for better clarity in order to avoid this incongruence between fact and fiction. In the interview with Keating Ninja stated “Die Antwoord dies on that day. It’s all over. I feel beautiful about it. I’m not scared of the end” on the topic of their alleged plans to break up in September of next year. Even in the Instagram post made by Yolandi denying this claim, she says “next year we will be working on our 5th final DA album and then continue to shoot the DA feature film”. Despite the use of the word “final”, which seems to directly contradict the point she is trying to make, both members apparently meant that they will be creating art and music under a name other than Die Antwoord.
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