South African freak-rappers Die Antwoord made waves online today, as multiple sources announced that Ninja and Yo-Landi have split from Interscope to release their forthcoming record, TEN$ION, independently.
The duo, who after much hype, sold 26,000 copies of their debut Interscope LP $O$ (according to Nielsen Soundscan) and made a recent stateside appearance at Occupy Wall Street in October, reportedly called it quits when conversations began about making their music more mainstream-friendly, writing an entry in their online diary that read, “So anyway…Interscope offered us a bunch of money again to release our new album TEN$ION. But this time, they also tried to get involved with our music, to try and make us sound like everyone else out there at the moment. So we said: ‘U know what, rather hang on to your money, buy yourself something nice…we gonna do our own thing. Bye bye.'”
Whether that deal is officially kaputt, however, remains uncertain: a representative at Interscope told Billboard.biz and The Hollywood Reporter this afternoon that the label is still “currently in discussions” with the pair and declined to comment further.
Though the online diary entry in question is currently nowhere to be found on the band’s website, they took to their Facebook fan page earlier today to reiterate that “TEN$ION is releasing on ZEF Recordz…NOT on Interscope / Universal. Think it’s taking awhile for this to sink into their brainz.”
Die Antwoord’s Ninja told Boing Boing that the duo’s new music will be available as digital downloads and on flash drives, “Because CDs are like motherfucking VHS.”
