Die Antwoord

Making Time, Fri., July 23, 10 p.m.-3:30 a.m., $15, with Midnight Juggernauts and the Making Time DJs, Voyeur, 1221 St. James St., 215-735-5772, igetrvng.com.

by Patrick Rapa

hip-hop/trance

WTF is this? Some Memento-tatted Vanilla Ice-looking dude rapping about being "fantastically poor with patience like a stalker"? A Shobijin-voiced chick cooing hooks like "I-ee-I-ee-I, I am your butterfly" over and over? With straight-faced but comical, occasionally ultra-violent lyrics sung in both English and Afrikaans, Cape Town's Die Antwoord is tough to nail down. Are hard-boasting MC Ninja ("with razor-sharp lyrical throw-stars") and strange-sexy vocalist Yo-Landi Vi$$er pulling off some kind of blurry Ali G/MF Doom-type deal, where it's all a game, or do they maybe mean it a little? It's hard to say. They're way too clever not to know how ridiculous they are, but they're also really convincing at being ridiculous.