Within the first 30 seconds of my Skype interview with Die Antwoord, I pour chocolate syrup on my nose, and I’m standing on my head. Or trying to stand on my head. It’s 7 a.m. in Seattle—I think that’s 4 p.m. in Johannesburg, South Africa, where Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er are yelling at me, “Wake up, FUKKAH.” I fall over. The syrup is all over my face. They’re wearing rubber masks—Obama and Tweety Bird—and one is trying to stand on their head as well. Everything is blurry and drowned in laughing. Yo-Landi is high-pitched with her blond space-mullet-mane. She’s a mighty-mite majesty. And Ninja, the stick-figure rap-Khan. Upside down is a fitting position to be in for an interview with the South African rap-rave zef enforcers. They like to flip shit, fuck with shit, and get creative within audio/visual modalities until they burst. What bursts is beautiful for Die Antwoord. They go for all-out expression by any means, such as the gyno scene where a locust/prawn is pulled out of a Lady Gaga drag impersonator’s birth canal. They’re ill and raw, and smart(ass) and foul. The uncouth and crude are what’s attractive to Die Antwoord. Sonically, DJ Hi-Tek’s rank and bumping Diplo-sponsored crunk-house beats cause mob-mentality movement. A new Die Antwoord album called Donker Mag will be out June 3, with one collab rumored to be with London’s Aphex Twin and one with Cypress Hill’s DJ Muggs. Their new song “Pitbull Terrier” was just released. Back to the chocolate syrup all over my face. They said they wouldn’t do the interview unless I poured it on my nose and stood on my head. And I wouldn’t want it any other way. I sit up, wiping it out of my left eye with my shirt. Yo-Landi is Tweety unmasked. Ninja is Obama.

What time is it for you?

Tweety: It’s a hundred years in the future. Yeee. Neee-neee.

I’m surprised y’all didn’t make me stick the chocolate syrup up my ass.

Tweety: That’s for you to do on your own time. What the fuck is up, Seattle Sasquatches?

So how pissed off was Lady Gaga about your “Fatty Boom Boom” video?

Obama: That was, like, years ago. She told us how many tickets she sold in South Africa. She sold a lot of tickets. We don’t have anything against her. She’s just doing her thing. And, you know, we’re doing our thing. People can say whatever they want. We’ve always said what we want. And people can say whatever they want back. We were just having some fun. I used to think her music was totally weak and superficial shit. But I’m over it. We’re friends now. I want to move past this and go on a Madonna cruise with her. Maybe Gaga can open for us [laughs] on the cruise. We don’t want beef with her—Yo-Landi is vegan.

Can you talk about the new album, Donker Mag?

Tweety: Can you pour more chocolate on your face? We love you!

[I pretend to squeeze more chocolate] I heard maybe Aphex Twin will be on the album. And Rammstein, too?

Obama: We can’t say yet. We really wanted to do a track with Elvis. We called his house at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, like over and over, but they wouldn’t pick up. Maybe we had the wrong number. Now we want you to make a fort. We’re hanging up if you don’t make a fort.

[I go get a comforter and pull it over myself and the computer.] Okay, now we need story time with Obama in the fort. Where did it all begin?

Obama: It started with NWA, and the Beastie Boys. And Cypress Hill. Then came South Africa and all our languages. My brother hung himself. My dad got popped. My mom was working as a maid. I accidentally got Tweety pregnant. We didn’t know what we were going to do. We were experimenting. Rap wasn’t good anymore. Tweety told me to start fucking around with my future self. A hyper-reality of myself. That’s when it began. The internet is everything. It wasn’t myself, but it was more myself than any other self I’d had. We never had money for anything. We had fleas. We lived in one room for, like, 10 years. Then photographer Roger Ballen was born. And we found him. We really love him. He photographed South Africa’s street underbelly for years. Then Interscope didn’t know what to do with us. It was like District 9, where the aliens left a weapon that humans didn’t know how to use. We’re a rap group from South Africa. We’re not conceptual art at all. Some people think too much. Some people get it. We did Ten$ion on our own. We didn’t listen to them. If you’re in the public eye and you’re putting out music, I think you should do interesting things. And you need to have a sense of humor. If you put interesting things out there, you’re gonna attacked as much as you are praised.

In the video for “Fatty Boom Boom,” there’s a painting based on a dream you had.

Obama: Yeah, Evil Thing. My friend Mark did the mural. Desmond Tutu battled a monster with all these heads. The heads were Drake, Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne, Kanye West, Akon, and Pitbull. The monster had two dicks, and Desmond Tutu was firing a nine-millimeter Bible at it [laughs ]. It was like a nightmare.

What else did you all pull from Roger Ballen?

Tweety: We did the “I Fink U Freeky” video with him. He does this thing and calls it documentary fiction. Where you put yourself into the fiction, into the story, and start messing with it. That’s kind of what we do. We messed with the story and made this other reality come out.

What would you be if you weren’t Die Antwoord?

Tweety: Diamonds.

What would you be if you weren’t diamonds?

Obama: One of those telescopes in space. Like the ones that find new planets.

What’s your newest favorite sex toy?

Obama: Sigmund Freud is my newest favorite sex toy [laughs]. Sigmund Freud looking through a space telescope made out of diamonds. It’s next level. You should get one for all your friends. recommended