❉cogent-arts & humanitiesSmit, Cogent Arts & Humanities (2015), 2: 1064246
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2015.1064246
spectators' position as superior, controlling, not to say owning" (1992, p. 28). Since blackface minstrelsy was a stereotyped performance of Blackness, it was clearly an inauthentic representation of the African-American subject. The use of blackface in "Fatty Boom Boom" can be interpreted as a sign of inauthenticity and an indicator of the band's failure to create a homogenous image of hip hop or South African life. For instance, as White subjects, the band fails to live up to the trope that "real" hip hop originates from Blackness. Secondly, they are not "authentically" African in their appearance, and therefore cannot deliver on the expectations of what an African should presumably look and act like. Although Ninja and Visser are South African-born citizens and do create music which falls within the style of hip hop, their skin tone fails to live up to the tropes of hip hop realness or to a standardised image of African identities. They paste on a mask of blackface—they perform parody and in doing this satirise some of the stereotypes constructed around South African life.
Of course, Visser's black paint is different to the mask which was created in conventional blackface minstrelsy, but the reference is clear. While the original use of blackface was used to effect the appearance of Blackness by White performers, in this case, it covers the entirety of her body and is glossy and reflective, instead of the matte burnt cork in traditional minstrelsy. This glossy texture of the body paint is noteworthy: gloss is surface value, something deceptively good in appearance, perhaps similar to the neoliberal mask which "promotes" alterity. The use of the body paint is a pastiche of cultural forms and it is perhaps through this superficial skin of glossy paint where the notion of simulation becomes more prominent. In Baudrillard's formulation, simulation replaces the lost "original" through signs. These signs stand in for or replace the real and in order to fulfil the expectation of a consolatory image, appearances can be more valuable than the truth. The band has to adopt a certain image to be identified as authentically hip hop and also South African in origin. The humour of Die Antwoord comes to fore in how they have interpreted the desire for an authentically South African experience.
Furthermore, this reference to blackface also comments on the continuing exoticisation of those perceived as "other", in a situation where difference is promoted and simultaneously exploited for profit. Contemporary forms of racism are more subtle than, for instance, the use of blackface, as Rosi Braidotti argues, "contemporary racism celebrates rather than denies differences" (2002, p. 4). The use of blackface in this music video can perhaps be read as a condemnation of the manner in which African cultures are represented in the popular media and travel brochures, which do not necessarily employ blackface, but, nonetheless, further objectify the third world. There are layers of subversion operating as surface signs. In "Fatty Boom Boom", blackface is pasted onto an already established "mask" of Zef-ness, creating a satirical presentation of this practice, specifically within the network of signs in the music video that underline this performance of misguided views about South African life.
The music video for "Fatty Boom Boom" was released on Youtube amidst the internet hype surrounding Lady Gaga and Interscope (Die Antwoord's record label at that time). Die Antwoord refused to sign up as the opening act for Lady Gaga and also broke with Interscope to release their Ten$ion album on their own label, Zef Recordz. Ninja remarked that:
- Weird shit's been happening, like Lady Gaga asked us to tour with her and we're like, "No, don't worry about it" Our stuff is like fucking hardcore like solid heavyweight! We want it to be like a secret mind-fuck!… We like making pop music, but we like making hardcore music at the same time, mixing them, but they've got like, soul. It's not like weak, superficial shit. You know? (Die Antwoord, Lady Gaga, 2012)
This split apparently occurred because the label wanted to steer the band in a more mainstream direction: "they also tried to get involved with our music, to try and make us sound like everyone else out there at the moment" (Die Antwoord, Lady Gaga, 2012). This refusal to work with the established and popular artist, Lady Gaga and the band's split with Interscope, gives Die Antwoord more street credibility as "thugs for life". This attitude plays into the tropes of hip hop authenticity as being
