When I read this prompt I was initially stumped. I've only been seriously listening to hip-hop for the past year or two, and within that time I've mostly listened to local or independent artists from around here, and a few farther away. I then remembered a song called "Enter the Ninja" by Die Antwoord that a friend of mine played for me over the summer. With the hook being sung in an extremely high falsetto, that sounds more like a girly baby voice, I thought the whole song was ridiculous and had to ask if it was "real." With that, I decided to look into them further for this blog.
Die Antwoord come from Capetown, South Africa which shows in their music that's done in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa. They are a part of the "Zef" counter-culture, which focuses on being "poor but fancy" and having style. The group consists of two amin members, Ninja and Yo-Landi Visser, and usually DJ Hi-Tek, who is more of a fantastical figure who has been represented as a number of different races and people, and is never clearly identified. The video I attached is of their sond Fatty Boom Boom from their most recent album, TEN$ION, that came out in 2012. I think this song is very hip hop. There's a hook, and flow, and a clear African Aesthetic in the beat and the drums. I also really appreciate the use of graffiti(which they also use in other videos) in this video to poke fun at American hip hop and pop music, using a mural that depicts a monster with the heads of popular American rappers and pop artists. There's also a very clear hit at Lady Gaga with the star of this video being an obvious lookalike. Yo-Landi, the female part of the group does hooks, and also raps herself, powerfully despite her baby voice. Die Antwoord is very, very different from anything I've listened to, but I believe that despite their air of ridiculousness they are worth taking seriously, and looking into further.
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