Die Antwoord has built a career on provocation.

We tolerate it, and often even endorse it, because that provocation was supposedly part of a persona – a character.

Yolandi Visser and Ninja epitomise ‘zef culture’ – common, irreverent, uncultured, and filthy-mouthed.

I assumed that they left that stuff at the office when they weren’t on stage, but two recent incidents seem to suggest otherwise.

First, Australian rapper Zheani accused Ninja of ongoing abuse and misconduct in a diss track called ‘The Question’.

Now, Die Antwoord has been bumped from two festival line-ups in the US, following a video being brought to light.

The video, taken backstage at the 2012 Future Music festival in Adelaide, Australia, appears to show rapper Ninja assaulting Andy Butler of the band Hercules and Love Affair, Yolandi using homophobic slurs, and both of them falsely accusing him of sexual assault.

The video was first shown on local blog Watkykjy.

It was then picked up by The Citizen, which reports that the video was filmed and edited by the band’s former videographer Ben Crossman, who no longer works with Die Antwoord.

In a response on Facebook, Ninja said the video had been “cleverly edited” by Crossman to look like a hate crime, who he says “has been on a rampage to make us look bad in the media because we fired him years ago for being mentally unstable and malicious towards our family”.

Crossman told The Citizen that this was a lie: “I’m not actually that shocked but Ninja would rather lie and try and paint me as a crazy person than own up to his wrongdoing.”

You can read Ninja’s full response here. His story about being provoked doesn’t in any way excuse the homophobic slurs.

Crossman claims that he didn’t hit Butler. He also claims that Butler can corroborate this.

A recent clip also shows Ninja and Yolandi using the racial slur “n****r” multiple times, calling late R&B singer Whitney Houston a “crack whore bitch” on the night of her death, and calling a member of the audience a “swart naai” (“black f**k”) while onstage.

Let’s break it down.

Racist slurs were thrown at people of colour, and homophobic slurs were used to insult a queer person.

Yolandi may also have faked sexual assault, which is unforgivable because it makes it that much harder for real victims to come forward.

It’s time to face facts. This isn’t an act anymore, and these two must be held to account.

[source:citizen]