Music



[|Die Antwoord]
====Die Antwoord is a South African Rap-rave group from Cape Town, which is gaining international attention. The band is lead by vocalists Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er with tracks by DJ Hi-Tek. Ninja refers to Die Antwoord as “A wild and savage rap crew from the deep, dark, depths of Africa” Their music style is called Zef, which is South African slang for “redneck” or “common”. Zef is a South African counter culture movement which the New York Times explains as “The nasty, freaky, gleefully trashy underbelly of post-apartheid white South African culture.” The Zef movement is more then just a style of music and art, Zef reflects a change in white South African culture. When the black majority achieved political liberation in 1994 the whites experienced their own form of liberation in arts. During white rule in South Africa Afrikaner’s art was sponsored by the government, this required the Afrikaners to present themselves as up-standing Christians. After apartheid fell Afrikaan artists were free to explore a wide rage of expression which led to the Zef movement. They are heralded by some to be [|brilliantly weird].==== media type="youtube" key="vcMHkvEVgVo?rel=0" height="405" width="545"       [|Ladysmith Black Mbazo] One of the most famous acapella groups in the world comes from South Africa and is very popular with the older generations, as they take all of the traditional tribal songs and rhythyms of the native people in South Africa, and organize them in the style of Christian Gospel songs. Formed originally in the 1960's in [|Durban], South Africa by Joseph Shabalala, they are currently about 40 years old and still performing. Receiving their first recording in the 1970s after a radio show began their long career, they quickly continued to grow in popularity, even recording parts of Paul Simon's //Graceland// with the star, who became a long time friend of the group. They borrow a large part of their styles from a style called isicathamiya, which was created during Apartheid South Africa by the poor black miners. Forced to to work grueling, long, six day work weeks, thousands of miles away from their family and homes, and the only way they could connect to their culture was by singing. media type="youtube" key="9Buek_wu4xs?rel=0" height="315" width="420"