Song of the day: #2 Die Antwoord – "Wat Pomp" feat. Jack Parow

Judging from the YouTube video, "Wat Pomp" (approximately: "What's Pumping?") originally just featured Ninja & Yo-Landi (and a guy in a horrible jenky mask, who certainly doesn't seem to be Leon Botha,(?) representing DJ Hi-Tek), but the addition of "snor-rap"¹ star Jack Parow takes it to the next level. All the "Are they hipsters or not? Therefore, should i like them? Are they real or fake? Aren't they just mocking the poor?" questions become pretty irrelevant² when confronted with spectacular party music like this.

Using a deathless electro pattern going back to (and probably further beyond) "Paid in Full", and layering it with low-end oomph, digital glitch and something bizarrely close to ska in the verses, the three MCs introduce themselves in a hilarious, irreverent Afrikaans/English blend. Rhyme patterns are kept satisfyingly simple and dirty for maximum party potential, and the whole thing comes off a bit like Spank Rock if he spent less time thinking about sex and more about getting wasted and hotwiring cars.

Parow's ludicrous verge-of-tears intonation steals the show ("fokk Steve Hofmeyr!"³), though special commendations for aceness must also go to the filthy playground chant in Ninja's verse, the old-skool way each MC's verse is announced by one of the others calling their name out, Ninja's line "me and my superfresh crew to the rescue / we came to gently caress you" and Yo-Landi's "poes, i won't listen. my tricky-dicky lietjie blows systems / you can hear me coming from a distance".

mp3: Die Antwoord – "Wat Pomp" feat. Jack Parow

¹ "Humans express thoughts, feelings, and ideas orally to one another through a series of complex movements that alter and mold the basic tone created by voice into specific, decodable sounds. Speech is produced by precisely coordinated muscle actions in the head, neck, chest, and abdomen.

Someone with a ‘snor’ (Afrikaans slang for mustache) produces a noticeable different sound. This happens because the sound-vibrations that exit the mouth are filtered through the thick mustache. Snor-rap was born with this idea in mind." (last.fm)

² Though my answers would be, in order: Who cares?; Yes, if you like serious execution of tongue-in-cheek concepts; everything's fake, what you mean is "should i pander to an irrelevant notion of authenticity or not?" (or more simply "who cares?" again); no, they're celebrating the class-spanning concept of getting lairy and daft, and not entirely seriously at that.

³ZA's biggest singer-songwriter; seemingly also a bit of a prick.