Die Antwoord dismiss racism allegations

Cape Town - Yo-landi Vi$$er has spoken out about the racial allegations against Die Antwoord's latest music video Fatty Boom Boom, saying she "doesn't know what blackface is", reports Die Burger.

Yo-landi has dismissed allegations saying that "it's an African thing" and that people "wouldn't understand".

Die Antwoord's Fatty Boom Boom video shows 'Lady Gaga', played by a male actor, in her infamous meat dress as she gets a minibus taxi tour of downtown Johannesburg. She spots Die Antwoord's Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er get ready for a street performance and is immediately impressed by them.

It's an African thing

In true Die Antwoord style, Yo-Landi takes fashion to a new level as she is covered head to toe in blackface and wears a dress made of Chappies chewing gum wrappers, while Ninja sports white body paint and black contact lenses.

Since the video premiered last week, it has attracted nearly 3 million views on YouTube.

In an interview with Die Burger's Theunis Engelbrecht, Yo-landi shrugged off racist allegations surrounding the video.

"We don't even know what blackface is. Ninja painted my face black for the video as part of our visual idea to illustrate an inter dimensional bridge between the colour filled streets and the pitch black voodoo-room in the video.

"The pitch black Yo-landi in a street filled with colours around her immediately attracts your eye when jumping from the dark voodoo-room with Ninja and his backup dancers, who are also painted black. It's an African thing - they wouldn't understand it," Yo-landi explained.

Die Antwoord and Lady Gaga were both locked in a war of words last week after Lady Gaga, a self-confessed fan of the zef-rap crew, took to Twitter to express her feelings about the video. Die Antwoord hit back at her, much to the dismay of Lady Gaga fans everywhere.

According to Yo-landi, the video has also caused an outrage in the US. "The video also premiered on US television the other day. Lady Gaga fans are also upset because they think we named the song Fatty Boom Boom because Gaga picked up a lot of weight recently.

"But this is just a coincidence, as the song was released in February when she was still fit," Yo-landi assured.

Chappies wrapper

Despite the controversy the video has caused, Yo-landi's face has been added to the "Did You Know" section of the Chappies chewing gum wrappers.

"They phoned me after seeing the video and asked me if they could send me a gift. I then received a package wrapped in a large Chappies wrapper. When I looked on the back, my face was under the "Did You Know" section.

The group is currently in the US for a tour and will be stopping over in New Orleans, Toronto, New York and Los Angeles.

Lady Gaga is set to perform two stadium shows in South Africa next month. She will be in Johannesburg on 30 November at the FNB Stadium and in Cape Town on 3 December at the Cape Town Stadium.