The aesthetic of photographer Roger Ballen in ‘I Fink U Freeky’ music video by South Africa’s controversial Die Antwoord elicits a huge, often emotional response

With a staggering near 30 million views on YouTube, one wonders why the aesthetic of photographer Roger Ballen in the ‘I Fink U Freeky’ video by South Africa’s controversial rap-rave band Die Antwoord elicits such a huge, often emotional response.

Only after I saw ‘I Fink U Freeky’ by Die Antwoord again last week I made the connection between the music video and photographer Roger Ballen. In the ‘I Fink U Freeky’ video Ballen’s aesthetic, visual language (by some described as twisted) combines well with the South African’s controversial rap-rave band Die Antwoord. The band from in Cape Town stars Ninja (Watkin Tudor “Waddy” Jones) and Yo-Landi Visser, while Justin De Nobrega aka DJ Hi-Tek keeps the rave beats on track. The video is shot in black and white, a trade mark practice of Roger Ballen, who has been shooting black-and-white film for nearly a half-century. With a staggering near 30 million views on YouTube, you have to ask why this video without any of the generic music video images shot in black and white hit the nail on the head and became so crazy popular.

“I was actually able to make a music video that had an aspect of art in it,” says Ballen in LAWeekly. “There are some complex meanings. There are some metaphorical meanings. It wasn’t just this kissy, sexy, funny, stupid type of stuff. This kitschy stuff you see over and over again — because this wasn’t kitschy I think it was a very refreshing transformation of a music video. It was different, completely different and it came from a different place I think that’s why it became well-known.”

Controversial or not, Die Antwoord has performed in the CBS Late Show with David Letterman and is one of the finalists for the best African act at the 2013 MTV European Music Awards coming November in Amsterdam.

Note: Video may contain adult content.