Yesterday, 4th of November was a big day for Die Antwoord.
While the South African rap duo dropped their new, beautifully shot video for “Ugly Boy” – featuring a comprehensive cast of celebrities – we also got to see the first official trailer of the 2015 film about a robot called “Chappy” – starring Die Antwoord.
“Ugly Boy” sees a blood splattered Ninja and Yolandi Vi$$er styled in goth-chic with some guest-heavy cameos from Flea, Marilyn Manson, Dita Von Teese, Jack Black, Cara Delevingne, the ATL Twins and Insane Clown Posse.
The Ninja-directed video comes across like a beautifully styled, motion photo shoot. You can see Ninja’s now just basically taking the piss with all the opinionated bloggers, academics and social media’s focus on topics like political correctness and cultural appropriation: I mean, there’s a random white dude, labeled “Hi My Name Is: God” that just dances around all goofy in full black-face gear.
“Dis song was a bit of a mindfuck 2 make… me and Y had been broken up 4 a while… but dis was da 1st time dat Y got in2 a kinda serios relationship wif sum1else, who happnd 2 be an activ gangster from da cape flats… who runs wif a gang called da UGLY AMERICANS.. or UGLY BOYS,” says Ninja in the insert of their third album Donker Mag.
The stint where Marilyn Manson invited Johnny Depp and Ninja onstage the past weekend also makes bit more sense now if you take into account that Manson is releasing a new album, Die Antwoord dropped a new video and we got to see new the trailer for Chappie.
Co-written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, Chappie (due in theaters Mar. 6) follows an experimental humanoid who’s abducted by criminals (Yo-Landi and Ninja) en route to an Artificial Intelligence day of reckoning. Will Chappie’s capacity to think and feel for himself result in “the next step in evolution”?