The first time I noticed their talent was on a friend’s link on Facebook. Next thing I knew, my lips puckered up, my head was bobbing and my heart was pumping as I watched their highly stylized videos. It was like Gummo-meets-rave-techno satisfying. I am talking about Die Antwoord, an Afrikaans zef rap-rave band from Cape Town, South Africa. The first video I laid my eyes on was Zef side:

Ninja, Yo-Landi and DJ Hi-Tek made all their music and music videos on their own with the help of some good friends. They have been bubbling under the media radar for a while, and it finally exploded on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook after the first week of February, when boing boing first blogged about them.

Die Antwoord claimed that they put a Puma logo on their website because Puma gives them free clothes and free shoes (Puma is not giving them money, way to go Puma!). Jagermeister also came across with some freebies — they are probably pouring shots in their mouths as we speak. But Die Antwoord is certainly putting these two well-known brands on the next level.

Die Antwoord began to get noticed after they launched their musik on wat ky kjy, the legendary Zef Afrikaans blog that became Die Antwoord’s home. Google helped, too. Their music videos are streamed by YouTube, and there’s a lot of discussion on Facebook and Twitter or bloggers and news websites.

Live Nation, the biggest events company in the world, wants to make a deal with them. There’s an international bidding war going on at the moment over who’s going to represent them. EMI Worldwide and Interscope Universal are bidding for their soul.

This is truly the music sensation of 2010 and I always love materials from the early stage of a musician’s career, when it’s fresh and it’s popping!

Check out one more video when they were jamming on the taxi:

Taxijam presents Die Antwoord from taxijam on Vimeo.