2004–2010: Formation, virality and SOS Watkin Tudor Jones, who performed as Waddy Jones, began rapping at age 14, performing at Black nightclubs throughout
Johannesburg and fronting various English-speaking
hip hop groups. He began performing under the name Max Normal in 1997 and later released his debut solo studio album,
Memoirs of a Clone, under his own name. Max Normal became a band in 2001, consisting of Jones, guitarist Mark Buchanan, drummer Sean Ou Tim, and DJ Sibot, but later disbanded. He founded the
horrorcore collective
the Constructus Corporation, whose album
The Ziggurat was released through African Dope Records in 2002 with an accompanying
graphic novel, and released a second solo studio album,
The Fantastic Kill, in 2005, also through African Dope. After meeting again at one of his shows, he asked her to contribute vocals to a Constructus Corporation song. Jones offered to teach du Toit how to rap and they began making music together in 2004—with Jones directing
Picnic, a
mockumentary about du Toit, that year—before getting married and having a daughter named Sixteen together in 2005. Max Normal was later revived as
MaxNormal.TV, a motivational hip hop group featuring du Toit, producer Justin de Nobrega, and Jakob Basson that performed in suits and played
PowerPoint presentations during performances. In 2008, they released their debut studio album,
Good Morning South Africa, and performed at
Pukkelpop. Jones also performed under the names Yang Weapon, Metatron One, the Man Who Never Came Back, and MC Totally Rad. He later described his participation in his former acts, with which he did not "really have an emotional connection", as "experimenting, messing around and trying to find Die Antwoord". in 2009 Die Antwoord formed in 2008 in Cape Town, then consisting of Jones, known as Ninja; du Toit, known as Yolandi Visser and stylized as Yo-Landi Vi$$er; and de Nobrega, the group's producer who went by the name DJ Hi-Tek. Their name is . They performed at the South African music festival
Oppikoppi and released their debut studio album,
SOS, in 2009. The music video for their single "Enter the Ninja"—which starred South African DJ
Leon Botha, who also opened for Die Antwoord's earliest concerts and was notable for being the oldest living person with
progeria before his death in 2011 at age 26—was released in late 2009. Also released then was a short promotional video titled
Zef Side, which was directed by Sean Metelerkamp and featured interviews with the group about their fictitious origin story in a
public housing suburb as well as their song "Beat Boy", which samples the 1986
Bronski Beat song "
Hit That Perfect Beat". By the end of 2010, "Enter the Ninja" had received over eight million views on YouTube and was named
Myspace's Video of the Year, while
Zef Side had over five million views and was one of 25 videos selected for
the Guggenheim's
YouTube Play exhibit, which showcased
video art from YouTube. of
Boing Boing interviewing Die Antwoord at
Coachella in 2010 Die Antwoord's plans to release their debut studio album through Dutch record label Magnetron Music fell through by mid-February 2010. Die Antwoord met with
Jimmy Iovine to sign a US$1 million deal with
Interscope Records, which they announced in May 2010.
SOS, which had previously been released online for free with 23 tracks, was
reissued with 10 tracks, including by Interscope in the United States and by
Polydor Records in the United Kingdom, on 12 October 2010. It was preceded in October 2010 by the single "
Evil Boy", featuring teenage
Xhosa rapper Wanga Jack and produced by
Diplo. Ninja stated in 2010 that
SOS was the first in a five-album plan. Also in 2010, Visser and Ninja adopted Gabriel du Preez, a then–nine-year-old with
hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia from
Vrededorp. They nicknamed him Tokkie and he was later featured in several of their music videos including "I Fink U Freeky", after Ben Jay Crossman, a photographer who frequently collaborated with Die Antwoord, photographed him and his family for a documentary about Vrededorp. Die Antwoord performed at the London Electronic Dance Festival alongside
Aphex Twin in August 2010 and on
Jimmy Kimmel Live! in October 2010, where they performed "Enter the Ninja". By late 2010, they had become "arguably the first-ever
pop phenomenon to spring out of Cape Town", according to
Interviews T. Cole Rachel. They performed at the Australian
Big Day Out festival in January 2011. They were nominated for the Left Field Woodie at the 2011
Woodie Awards, which was won by
Kanye West. The duo starred as wheelchair-using versions of themselves in
Harmony Korine's short
gangster film Umshini Wam, named after a
Zulu protest song of the same name. It premiered at
South by Southwest in March 2011 before being released online the following day. For
Vulture, Amos Barshad praised the film as "a thoroughly engaging fifteen minutes" that "smartly stirs up the Die Antwoord argument". Also that month, a music video for their song "Rich Bitch" was released. They were an opening act for
Linkin Park on European dates of their
Projekt Revolution tour in June 2011. In November 2011, Die Antwoord left
Interscope Records over disputes concerning their upcoming album,
Tension, including over the vulgarity of its lead single "Fok Julle Naaiers" (which translates to 'Fuck You All' in Afrikaans) and, according to Ninja, label executives' suggestions that they focus the album on collaborations with Interscope labelmates such as
Lady Gaga, the
Black Eyed Peas, and
Far East Movement, to which they objected. Visser also stated that Interscope "kept pushing us to be more generic" in order to make more money. They announced
Tensions release date and tracklist the following month. Ninja described their aim for
Tension as feeling "like an exact continuation of
SOS.
Tensions second single, "I Fink U Freeky", was released in January 2012 alongside a music video co-directed by Ninja with photographer
Roger Ballen, featuring recreations of scenes from Ballen's photo books
Boarding House and
Shadow Chamber. It won the award for Best Music Video at the 20th
Plus Camerimage film festival in Poland and was praised by
The Guardians Andrew Frost as a rare success among collaborations between
contemporary artists and popular musicians. They also performed the song the following month on the
Late Show with David Letterman. Die Antwoord released
Tension on 7 February 2012 through Zef Recordz, in association with the
Good Smile Company, which also collaborated with the group to release
vinyl toys of their character Evil Boy, which resembles
Casper the Friendly Ghost with an oversized erection, and
Downtown Records, which handled and distributed the record worldwide. Camille Dordero of
Spin derided
Tension as "a thumping collection of skits" that "hews a little too close to the fake-gangster thing to be nearly as fun [as
SOS]", also hypothesizing that it was "deliberately bad" and "ruthless white-rap pastiche", while Derek Staples of
Consequence wrote that, despite its "foul-mouthed impish fun",
Tension "could have benefited from some artistic restraint" and "doesn't offer much punch or cohesive power". Die Antwoord went on an American tour starting shortly after
Tensions release and, that summer, at the request of guitarist
Dave Navarro, toured as an opener for the
alternative rock band
Jane's Addiction. "Baby's on Fire", the third single from
Tension, was released in June 2012 with a music video wherein Ninja and Visser play siblings arguing over Visser's lover. They went on tour from June to October throughout Europe and the United States to support the release of
Tension. Their single "
Fatty Boom Boom" and its music video were released in October 2012. The music video was met with controversy due to Visser appearing in
blackface, which she responded to by stating that she "doesn't know what blackface is". It also experienced an uptick in views due to a Twitter feud between the duo and Lady Gaga, who is depicted in the video being eaten by a lion.
Tension was followed up with a non-album single, "Xpensiv Shit", in July 2012.
2013–2014: Donker Mag in 2013 Die Antwoord set out on their Blonde All Over Tour across Europe from June to July 2013. In June 2013, they released "Cookie Thumper!", the lead single for their third studio album, which was accompanied by a music video released by
Noisey. The song and its video depict Visser as an orphaned schoolgirl in a relationship with a drug dealer from the
Numbers Gang named Anais who gets released from prison and has
anal sex with her. The song and video received mixed reception from audiences upon their release. In February 2013, Die Antwoord opened for the
Red Hot Chili Peppers on their
I'm with You World Tour during their stops in Johannesburg and Cape Town. They posted on their Facebook page in late 2013, confirming reports that they would be appearing in
Neill Blomkamp's science fiction film
Chappie. A September 2013 story in the Johannesburg-based newspaper
City Press cited allegations from Cape Town farmer Andre Laubscher that Ninja had stolen Die Antwoord's image from the Glue Gang Boys, a teenage hip hop group who lived on Laubscher's farm and worked as backup dancers for the group, whom Ninja allegedly supplied with alcohol and drugs. Wanga Jack, who had been a member of the Glue Gang Boys before working as Die Antwoord's DJ and
roadie, claimed that the group stole his artwork to create their Evil Boy character, underpaid him for his contributions to the group, and had him sign an illegal contract with Interscope while he was a minor. Die Antwoord responded to the claims in an eight-part Facebook post, calling Laubscher a "creepy old man" who, they alleged, had tried to convince Visser to let him take nude photographs of her while she was staying there and had convinced Jack, whom they allegedly fired due to his unprofessionalism, to fabricate his story after discovering that they had been cast in
Chappie. In May 2014, Die Antwoord announced the title and cover of their third album,
Donker Mag, and released its second single "Pitbull Terrier" with a music video directed by Ninja, in which he plays a dog that wreaks havoc on the public.
Donker Mag was released on 3 June 2014 through Zef Recordz. It became their most commercially successful release in the United States at the time, reaching their then-highest peak on the
Billboard 200 at number 37 and topping the Dance/Electronic Albums chart after selling seven thousand copies in its opening week. David Jeffries of
AllMusic praised it as being "as inspired, awful, and awesome as their debut" and lacking the "dead spots" he found on
Tension, while Adam Finley of
PopMatters wrote that, though it was "not a great album overall", it presented "proof that Die Antwoord's multimedia odyssey isn't out of surprises just yet". The album's third and final single, "Ugly Boy", was released in November 2014. Its music video was directed by Ninja and featured cameos from
Cara Delevingne,
Jack Black,
Marilyn Manson,
Dita Von Teese, and
Flea, among others. It also faced controversy for featuring a man in a mask resembling Aphex Twin, whose song "
Ageispolis" is sampled on the song, in blackface.
2015–2016: Suck on This, Chappie, and Mount Ninji and da Nice Time Kid Prior to the release of
Chappie, cast and crew members, including Blomkamp's longtime collaborator
Brandon Auret, repeatedly spoke out against Ninja's on-set behavior, leading Blomkamp to write him out of a scene and lessen his appearance in promotional materials. In it, Ninja and Visser star as fictionalized versions of themselves alongside
Jose Pablo Cantillo, who collectively portray a trio of drug dealers that abducts the film's eponymous robot (voiced by
Sharlto Copley) to assist them with heists while mentoring him on how to be a gangster. It was critically maligned, largely due to the duo's performances in the film. Mike Ryan of
Uproxx wrote that he was "actively waiting for their characters to die" and that "Blomkamp could have actually pulled this story off" had he not cast them, while
Anthony Lane wrote for
The New Yorker that Visser and Ninja were "the prime offenders" among "a phalanx of poor performances" within the film.
Entertainment Weeklys Kyle Anderson wrote that their performances were "distracting at best and disastrous at worst". In October 2016, Ninja posted on Instagram that the duo should have been given an
art direction credit on the film after having painted a "secret lair" that appeared therein, which was instead credited to "some fat fuck". of
Cypress Hill produced much of Die Antwoord's 2016 projects
Suck on This and
Mount Ninji and Da Nice Time Kid Ninja and Visser met
DJ Muggs, a founding member of the hip hop group
Cypress Hill and one of their musical idols, when photographer
Estevan Oriol introduced them to him at a
quinceañera in
East Los Angeles. In January 2015, they went on a four-stop tour of the United Kingdom. On 19 May 2016, the duo released their debut
mixtape,
Suck on This, on their website and on
DatPiff. It featured production from DJ Muggs, known on the album as the Black Goat, and DJ Hi-Tek, going by his alias God. It was preceded by the release of singles "Dazed and Confused", "Bum Bum", and "Gucci Coochie", the last of which featured Dita Von Teese and for which a music video teaser was released. Die Antwoord performed for the first time in
Israel in June 2016 in
Rishon LeZion, going against requests from the Palestinian-led
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement's South African branch for the duo to cancel their performance due to parallels between
South African apartheid and
Israeli apartheid. Their performance took place on the same day as
a mass shooting in Tel Aviv. Die Antwoord went on their international Mount Ninji and Da Nice Time Kid Tour from July to October 2016, with its North American leg including performances at
Lollapalooza and
Austin City Limits. After their tour stop at the
Reading and Leeds Festivals, Ninja posted on Instagram that they would "never be playing at [the] festivals ever again" due to "how disrespectful" their organisers were. They partnered with the Northern California-based cannabis retailer Natural Cannabis to release Zef Zol (
zol being South African slang for a
joint) in August 2016, their line of cannabis products including a
vape pen,
edibles, a mouth spray, and a lip balm. In July 2016, it was announced that Die Antwoord's upcoming album would be titled
Mount Ninji and da Nice Time Kid after previously being announced with the title
We Have Candy. The album's lead single "Banana Brain", also released in July, peaked at number 30 on the
Dance/Electronic Songs chart to become their first song to appear on a
Billboard song chart. The album's single "Fat Faded Fuck Face" was released in September 2016. Its video, directed by Visser, was compared by critics to a
horror movie and featured nudity.
Mount Ninji and Da Nice Time Kid was released on 16 September 2016. It was produced by the Black Goat and God and featured guest appearances from the child rapper Lil Tommy Terror, Jack Black, Dita Von Teese, and
Sen Dog, also of Cypress Hill. Conversely, it was criticized by Max Totsky of
PopMatters as "too obnoxious when it's not boring and too boring when it's not obnoxious" and by Saby Reyes-Kulkarni of
Pitchfork as "too faded and immature to make a lasting dent on the face of hip-hop". Visser soon responded to the interview in an Instagram post, writing that Keating had misconstrued Ninja's words and that they would not be breaking up, though their fifth album would still be their last.
2017–2018: Scrapped Book of Zef album in 2017 Ninja was featured in Alexander Wang's S/S 2017 campaign in January 2017. In May 2017, Die Antwoord announced via Instagram that they planned to release their fifth studio album, then titled
The Book of Zef, as their last, and released its planned lead single, "Love Drug". They embarked on the Love Drug World Tour from May to September of that year. They released ''Tommy Can't Sleep
, a short film starring their daughter Sixteen Jones and Jack Black, the film, which was directed by Yolandi Visser, features black-and-white, grotesque imagery inspired by photographer Roger Ballen. in June of that year, followed by a trailer for a television series they were creating, South African Ninja
, in July. They then announced in June 2018 that their final album would instead be titled 27
and would feature 27 songs, many of which would be collaborations and would be released over the course of the following year. The scheduled lead single of that album, "Golden Dawn", was released in the summer of 2018, though 27'' was never released. Die Antwoord announced in April 2018 that they would be performing in Israel in August. Due to calls from the
African National Congress for South African artists to boycott performing in Israel in solidarity with the
Palestinians, the announcement received backlash from social media users. They canceled the performance in June 2018. They posted a
freestyle diss track against
Eminem to their YouTube channel in September 2018 as a response to his diss of them on the song "
Greatest" from his album
Kamikaze, a continuation of their feud that began after Eminem mispronounced the duo's name on his 2017 single "
Untouchable".
2019–present: House of Zef, assault and abuse allegations In March 2019, Australian rapper
Zheani released "The Question", a diss track against Die Antwoord accusing the duo of
sex trafficking her to South Africa, resulting in online attention. Visser denied the claims on
Instagram and accused Zheani of "clout chasing". Six months later, Zheani filed a police report against Ninja in
Queensland, accusing him of having violently sexually assaulted her in 2013 in
Wilderness and of sharing
revenge porn of her to his
Chappie castmates. She alleged that Visser connected her to Ninja, and they began to exchange emails. Ninja reportedly wrote that he loved Zheani while comparing her to his daughter, sent her explicit photos, and arranged for her to visit him in South Africa. According to her, he continued to email her after the assault, which he described as a "ritual". American singer Dionna Dal Monte, who became known in the Italian media for having a
swastika tattooed on her breast, also came forward to allege that Ninja had sexually assaulted her in Italy in 2014. Soon after the video resurfaced, they were dropped from the lineups of the American music festivals
Life is Beautiful,
Louder Than Life, and
Riot Fest, the last of which saw them replaced with
Wu-Tang Clan. Ninja wrote in a
Facebook post that Crossman "cleverly edited" the video to make it look like a homophobic
hate crime despite his own participation in assaulting Butler. Die Antwoord's House of Zef Tour, which was scheduled in the United States from September to October 2019, was postponed in September 2019, ostensibly due to their occupation with other projects. Chelsey Norris of the
Dallas Observer surmised that the tour's postponement was instead due to the resurfaced video involving Butler. Their fifth studio album,
House of Zef, was produced by
Chris Tabron and released on 16 March 2020. It received little media attention. In June of that year, American rapper
Danny Brown appeared on an episode of the podcast
2 Bears 1 Cave, where he accused Ninja of having sexually assaulted him at a nightclub in
Paris, describing Ninja's behavior as "aggressive" and stating that he sat on his lap and tried to kiss and have sex with him while propositioning him for a
threesome with Visser. A documentary about the duo's origins,
Zef: The Story of Die Antwoord, was directed by Jon Day, narrated by their daughter, Sixteen Jones, and released in March 2024. In 2024, they went on their Reanimated Tour in Europe from March to April, their Flame On Muddafucka Tour in North and South America from October to November, and their Zef Winter Wonderland Tour, again in Europe, from November to December. ==Artistry==