Die Antwoord – I Fink U Freeky
2012 · Directed by Roger Ballen & Ninja
1.3M Likes
Best comments
1.“This video makes Billie Eilish look like a Disney princess.”
More comments
- 2.“If I ever become an English teacher, I'll have my students analyze this video just to break them.”
- 3.“Billie Eilish: I make the weirdest music videos ever! Lady Gaga: Aw, that's cute. Die Antwoord: Aww... they grow up so fast.”
The story
Die Antwoord are the South African rap-rave duo of Ninja and Yolandi Visser, and they've never met a comfort zone they didn't want to set on fire. For this one, the second single from their 2012 album Ten$ion, Ninja co-directed with Roger Ballen, the photographer whose unsettling pictures had already shaped the band's look.
Ballen had shot photos for the album years earlier. When fans started posting those images behind the tracks on YouTube and the views shot up to around eight million, the band decided it was time for a proper video together. The sets started as Ballen still lifes built from his photographs, then got body parts added – a mouth here, a hand or a foot there – and were filmed like a movie.
The result is black and white and properly ghoulish. Rats crawl over Yolandi while she sings. There's a pig's head with no pig, cockroaches in the fried eggs, a writhing snake, smashed Beats headphones, and Ninja's cousin turns up too. Ten$ion itself got mixed reviews. The video is the thing people remember. Sleep tight.
