Contrary to reports that surfaced over the weekend, Die Antwoord will not be splitting up next year – but they are working on an art exhibition and a feature film.
News that the South African electro-rap duo would be splitting up came from an interview that the band’s Ninja gave to Exclaim!. In it, he was quoted as saying that the band would split up in September 2017. “Die Antwoord dies on that day,” he said, “It’s all over. I feel beautiful about it. I’m not scared of the end. I’m a Ninja. I'm not scared of death.”
However, Yolandi Visser has since responded to the interview, stating that the words were taken out of context. “DIE ANTWOORD IS NOT BREAKING UP”, she wrote on Instagram, “The journalist... totally twisted our words.” She did, however, say that next year they will release their “5th final DA album”, but this does not suggest that they’ll be splitting up afterwards (representatives for Die Antwoord did not immediate respond to requests for clarification).
Yolandi also confirmed that other parts of the interview were true, writing that Die Antwoord’s 2017 plans will include a retrospective at Cape Town’s MOCAA (Museum of Contemporary Modern Art Africa), and that they will shoot a feature film called South African Ninja, which has apparently been in the pipeline for roughly ten years.
“We actually started writing it before Die Antwoord,” Ninja told Exclaim!, “So, it’s been in the background for all of our ideas, which have all come from this film. It’s a South African gangster film that has African ninjas in it. Everything in the film is fictitious, like a regular movie, but it’s hard and raw, and everything has some parallel to our lives, so it’s got a surreal connection to everything."
He also explained that the exhibition will be presented by artist/photographer Roger Ballen. “We want Roger Ballen to present us, ‘cos of all the influences we have, he's pretty much hands-down number one,” Ninja said, “We’re his children.”
Die Antwoord are currently gearing up to release their new album Mount Ninji and Da Nice Time Kid, which follows this year’s Suck On This mixtape. Read the interview over at Exclaim!, and in the meantime watch the band’s new video for “Banana Brain” below.
