❉cogent-arts & humanitiesSmit, Cogent Arts & Humanities (2015), 2: 1064246
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2015.1064246
concepts of identity. Their construction of Zef is purposely false and exaggerated. For instance, Ninja had previously been active in the South African music industry as the front man for MaxNormal.TV (1995–2002) and the Constructus Corporation (2003). He was known for creating onstage characters and for his satirical performance style in these two musical products. Yo-landi Visser, a former Fine Art student from Pretoria, was also involved in some of these projects.
What is particularly fascinating about Die Antwoord is their refusal to acknowledge their performance as constructed. In fact, Die Antwoord have been consistent in resisting the question of their authenticity. In "Fok Julle Naaiers", Visser asks Ninja if his act is real and in an aggressive tone he replies that the question is idiotic and that he will punch someone if he is asked this question again. Ninja's response here sounds as a refusal to "sell out" the manufactured and performed "authenticity" of Zef. Both performers get exasperated when interviewers question their "realness" as an act. When asked by a Norwegian interviewer, "What do you feel about the debate on the internet that you are a piece of conceptual art?" Ninja responded as follows: "We are a rap group from South Africa. Some people think too much … other people fucking get it. Do you consider yourself to be an intelligent person? What do you think?" (Interview Gone Wrong, 2010). Visser interjected with "What the fuck is 'ceptual art?'" (Interview Gone Wrong, 2010). For a statement that has been repeated in previous interviews, Ninja's reply to Los Angeles Times reviewer, Chris Lee, testifies "Conceptual art, I don't even know what that is" (2010).
2. Rap/zef/poverty
Die Antwoord do not merely appropriate, but perform multiple ideas about life in South Africa and their interpretation of popular culture. As a rap group, Die Antwoord have created a way to "live up to" the tropes of hip hop authenticity. Rap is known as an intentionally subversive form of music which emerged as an expression of marginalised Black youth in urban America. Rap often celebrates Blackness and intercity culture with its roots in the South Bronx in the 1970s and 80s. As privileged White subjects, Die Antwoord have little claim to the marginal experiences of black rappers.
Kembrew McLeod observes that one of the most emphasised aspects of hip hop realness is related to street credibility (thug for life status) and being true to oneself (1999, pp. 140–142). A White rapper can be authentic by proving him/herself through a sincere and honest presentation of self through hip hop. Hess argues that White rappers accentuate their Whiteness, thereby challenging the invisibility and privilege of Whiteness (2005, p. 382). He regards Eminem as a White hip hop artist who manages to represent his low-income background, while at the same time, highlighting his privilege as a White male working within an industry dominated by African-Americans. Although Eminem is White, he manages to represent hip hop authenticity by responding to his own Whiteness within the context of hip hop. In order to live up to tropes of rap "realness", Die Antwoord focus on the figure of the poor White (or White trash) in order to carve out their gangsta status.
When one considers the importance of a disadvantaged background in hip hop, it becomes more evident why the idea of Zef is able to accommodate and embody tropes of hip hop authenticity since Zefness is defined by a lack of wealth. Parow states that Zef "is like, well, like the opposite of posh, like plastic … fur on the dashboard" (Samson, 2011, p. 20). Zef is described by Ninja as an appropriation of aspects of American popular culture, he explains: "Zef is, like, American style, it's like the debris of American culture that we get in dribbles. We tape it together and try to be American … The Zef style is a coarse style" (Lee, 2010). While Visser describes it as: "Zef is, you're poor but you're fancy. You're poor but you're sexy, you've got style" (Hoby, 2012). Clearly, Zef is not an unambiguous term, but it is a very specific way of incorporating the mainstream and commercial "debris" into a South African idiom. It will become more apparent that Zef cannot really be defined in any simple or definite way and that Zef constitutes a multiplicity of references.
The word Zef, for instance, was derived from the Ford Zephyr car of the 1950s and 1970s, and was used as a derogatory term to identify poor Whites who lived in caravan parks (2012, p. 402). Although the Ford Zephyr was not necessarily representative of poverty, it was associated with a less
