DIE ANTWOORD
$0$
(Cherrytree/Interscope)
Die Antwoord sound like they come from a place that’s a lot farther away than South Africa. On its debut album, the Cape Town trio spins hip-hop into a frothy blend of futuristic electro beats, outer-space bips and bleeps, and old-school boasting rhymes from a guy named Ninja. $0$ isn’t so much an album of songs as it is a collection of random ideas about what rap music might sound like on Mars. It’s scary, exhilarating, and at times downright baffling. And there’s no better intro to this freaked-out corner of the galaxy than opener “In Your Face,” where DJ Hi-Tek’s stomping beat occasionally stops for wordy rhymes that skitter between English and Afrikkans. In “Enter the Ninja,” chipmunk-voiced Yo-landi Vi$$er’s chorus (“I am your butterfly … Be my samurai”) rubs harshly against Ninja’s speed rhymes. “Yo, what the fuck are you saying?” Yo-landi asks at one point. We have no idea, but you’ve never heard anything like it. —Michael Gallucci
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