A few days ago, ever-bizarre South African rap duo Die Antwoord released their fourth studio album, Mount Ninji and da Nice Time Kid, and as you’d expect, it’s a trip that bounces between hip-hop, techno, and oddity. They took their act to the Jimmy Kimmel Live! stage last night, and reminded us that, boy, they sure can put on a show.
To kick off their performance of “Banana Brain,” there were two dancers in brightly colored footie pajamas just losing their minds before a shirtless Ninja came out and launched into the track, high-fiving the crowd virtually the whole time. Just in time for the hook, Yolandi Visserâalso donning hooded, baggy pajamasâcame out and sang her part from atop Ninja’s shoulders. It was everything that defines Die Antwoord: madness with a catchy beat.
You may have noticed that Kimmel began his introduction of the two by saying, “They are not breaking up.” Ninja recently said, “âDie Antwoord dies [next September]. Itâs all over. I feel beautiful about it. Iâm not scared of the end. Iâm a Ninja. Iâm not scared of death.â However, it turns out the band feels Ninja’s words were taken out of context, and Visser wrote in a recent Instagram post that the author of the article “totally twisted our words an took what we said completely out of context. […] All we said was next year we will be working on our 5th final DA album & then continue to shoot a DA feature film. DIE ANTWOORD FOR EVA.”
Calling their next record their “5th final DA album” sure makes it sound like they might conclude releasing music after that, but if Die Antwoord proclaims themselves to be alive, who are we to argue? Die Antwoord for eva.
Featured image:Â Interscope