Watkin Tudor Jones

Watkin Tudor Jones

Watkin Tudor Jones aka Waddy Jones, is a mixed media South African artist whose work largely involves hip hop music and is sometimes described as one or more of the following: rapper, composer, protagonist, satirist.

Watkin Tudor Jones was a part of South African hip-hop scene for many years, fronting such acts as The Original Evergreens, Max Normal.tv and The Constructus Corporation. He is known for adopting different stage personas. He currently fronts the group Die Antwoord under the name Ninja.

Waddy has released several albums under different guises (including the Sibot-produced The Fantastic Kill and Markus Wormstorm-produced promo-only EP "Emmanuel Rothchild - My Favourite Songs" and "Markus Wormstorm Is Not Gay"), and expanded into graphic art, stuffed animal making, and other aspects of his creativity.

Max Normal

He was the lead "Max Normal" of the 'corporate' hip-hop group "MaxNormal.tv". They were a South African hip-hop crew that performed live wearing 3 piece suits while frontman MaxNormal delivered his motivational speaking style raps to the audience. He also illustrated his lyrics to help the audience follow which were projected onto a big screen above the live performers and are triggered live to the beat by Max's personal assistant, Yolandi Visser, in a PowerPoint presentation style.

In early 2002, Waddy had summarily disbanded Max Normal.tv, just as the band was reaching South African stardom, headlining festivals like Oppikoppi and charting on 5FM (citing being creatively stifled as reason). He relocated to Cape Town and began collaborating with DJ Dope of Krushed & Sorted and Felix Laband on the music for a multi-media project he had conceptualised involving a graphic novel with soundtrack and live show. These sessions spawned the Man With No Name track on African Dope's 'Cape Of Good Dope' compilation in 2002, but gradually mutated into The Constructus Corporation outfit. Yolandi Visser, listed as Anica The Snuffling on the credits, was also involved.

The Constructus Corporation

When Jones disbanded Max Normal in early 2002, he and long-time DJ partner Sibot invited Markus Wormstorm and Felix Laband to collaborate on his ambitious The Constructus Corporation project, which resulted in the concept album / graphic novel The Ziggurat (ADOPECD009 African Dope Records 2002).

After a production process including mix and master by Krushed & Sorted, in December 2002 "The Ziggurat" was released. This remains one of the most ambitious and extravagant music packagings to come from South Africa: an 88 page pink hard-covered book containing a hand-written hiphop fantasy story by Waddy, which follows the adventures of two kids on a giant futuristic floating world / shopping mall called The Ziggurat, detailed etched digital illustrations by artist Nikhil Singh, a soundtrack CD on which Waddy plays several different characters, and a bonus blank CD at the back of the book with instructions on where to download an entire second album of music and narrations for free, with which to fill the CD.

The Constructus Corporation disbanded in early 2003.

Die Antwoord

He is currently portraying the "Ninja" of Zef-Rap group Die Antwoord with Yo-landi Vi$$er and DJ Hi-Tek. The band self-identifies as a melange of several diverse cultures all mixed into one. Die Antwoord is planning to tour Europe in April 2010 and the USA later that same year. They announced via their website that they will be visiting France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK as part of their tour. In case of Die Antwoord Waddy's persona is Ninja: a hyper violent character who is very different from his previous incarnations. Their debut album $0$ was made available as a free download on their official website. In late 2009 South African cinematographer Rob Malpage co-directed (with Waddy), co-produced (with Left Films and Die Antwoord) and lensed the video for their single "Enter the Ninja." The video became a viral phenomenon on the internet nine months later, delivering millions of hits to the official Die Antwoord website, eventually crashing the website's server. The video also features South African progeria survivor Leon Botha, a prominent Cape Town artist. Die Antwoord performs "Zef" music, Zef being an Afrikaans term which loosely translates to the American equivalent of Redneck. Their lyrics are funny and explicit, and performed in both Afrikaans and English. Members of the band consider themselves as Hip Hop artists, but specifically refer to their music as zef rap-rave. Die Antwoord is a presentation of entertainment personas rather than that of authentic cultural identities.

External links

• Watkin Tudor Jones Discography at discogs.com
• The Constructus Corporation Discography at discogs.com
• The Constructus Corporation Ziggaurat Album page on African Dope
• Die Antwoord site
• Die Antwoord official fansite