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Watkin Tudor Jones

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Watkin Tudor Jones

Watkin Tudor Jones (born 26 September 1974 [2]), currently known by his stage name Ninja, is a South African rapper, record producer, and satirist. Previously, he has recorded under a guise of different names, Max Normal and MC Totally Rad being some of the most prominent.

Watkin Tudor Jones was a part of South African hip-hop scene for many years, fronting such acts as The Original Evergreens, MaxNormal.TV and The Constructus Corporation.[3] He is known for adopting different stage personas. He currently fronts the group Die Antwoord under the name Ninja.

Jones 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. He has a child with Yolandi Visser,[4] who is also a frequent collaborator.

Although he now resides in Cape Town, Jones originates from Johannesburg where he attended Parktown Boys' High School matriculating in 1993.[5][6]

Max Normal

He was the lead vocalist of the original incarnation "Max Normal", a live hip hop act, which released one album entitled Songs From The Mall in 2001. The band performed at various festivals around South Africa, including Up the Creek, Splashy Fen, and Oppikoppi. They also played in London and three shows at the world-renowned Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium.[7] a second version of this band evolved into 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, 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).[8]

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[citation needed] 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.

In the 2009 diss track "Jou ma se poes in 'n fish paste jar", Wormstrom is one of the targets, with the line "Marcus Wormstrom is short and fat".

Die Antwoord

Tudor-Jones' current project is rap-rave group Die Antwoord in which he records under the pseudonym "Ninja", along with Yo-landi Vi$$er and DJ Hi-Tek.[9] The band self-identifies as a melange of several diverse cultures all mixed into one.[9] Die Antwoord toured Europe in April 2010 and the USA later that same year.[9] 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.[citation needed] Their debut album $0$ was made available as a free download on their official website.[10] 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."[11] The promo became a viral video on the internet nine months later, delivering millions of hits to the official Die Antwoord website, eventually crashing the website's server.[9] The video also features South African progeria sufferer Leon Botha, a prominent Cape Town artist.[12] Die Antwoord performs "Zef" music, zef being a South African slang term that describes a unique South African style which is modern and trashy and also includes out-of-date, discarded cultural and style elements.[9] Their lyrics are funny and explicit, and performed in both Afrikaans and English.[9][10][13] Members of the band consider themselves as Hip Hop artists, but specifically refer to their music as zef rap-rave.[14] Die Antwoord appears to some to be a presentation of entertainment personas rather than that of intrinsic and authentic cultural identities.[15]

Discography

With The Original Evergreen
  • Puff The Magik (1995)
  • Burn The Evidence EP (1998)
As a solo artist
  • Memoirs Of A Clone (2001)
  • The Fantastic Kill (2005)
With Max Normal
  • Songs From The Mall (2001)
With The Constructus Corporation
  • The Ziggurat (2003)
As The Man Who Never Came Back
  • Cryptycism on Cape Town Beats (2007)
With Fucknrad
  • MC Totally Rad And DJ Fuck Are Fucknrad (2007)
As MaxNormal.TV
  • Rap Made Easy (2007)
  • Good Morning South Africa (2008)
With Die Antwoord
  • $O$ (2009)
  • 5 EP (2010)
  • $O$ Re-release (2010)

References

  1. ^ Die Antwoord to sign with Interscope, Neill Blomkamp to direct next video Boing Boing
  2. ^ archived interview of the Max Normal.Tv site last accessed 10-11-06
  3. ^ 24 Facts: Die Antwoord Channel24
  4. ^ Enter The Zef
  5. ^ Die Antwoord Discussion Boing Boing Accessed: 29-11-2010
  6. ^ Die Antwoord Discussion Boing Boing Accessed: 29-11-2010
  7. ^ [1] bio of max normal, taken from the sovereign express website.
  8. ^ http://www.africandope.co.za/albums/ziggurat.htm
  9. ^ a b c d e f S.African Afrikaans rappers takes Internet by storm Reuters. Accessed 10:20, 6 February 2010 (UTC).
  10. ^ a b 15 Minutes With a Ninja Mahala
  11. ^ Editor was Luke Apteker. Die Antwoord – Enter the Ninja Music Video
  12. ^ Die Antwoord, S. African zef-rap, and Progeria sufferer Leon Botha BoingBoing
  13. ^ Wat Pomp Lyrics Wat Pomp
  14. ^ Die Antwoord - Zef So Fresh Vice Magazine
  15. ^ Max Doesn't Live Here Anymore Mahala

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