Die Antwoord News

MusicReview hooked up with Die Antwoords chommie from South Africa and rising star as well; Jack Parow. We decided to place dis cool interview on zeflings.com cause we digg Parow a lot for making his very own fokken fre$h zef sound. "You think you're cooler as me? Cause you have a tattoo of a snake on your titty?" (just to taste the sound...sentence of 'cooler as ekke' song translated') They talk about his music, his plans for the future, his relationship with Die Antwoord, advice for aspiring rappers and about the correlation between hat size and penis size. Go Jack....

Hey Jack Parow, thank you for taking the time out to chat us. Gosh, so I just wanted to start by asking please to clarify three rumours that are floating around

Hey, yeah sure, shoot.

The first is a medical/biological rumour. Is it true that a person’s cap size is directly proportional to the size of that person’s penis? (laughs). It could be true, I don’t want to talk about it much, but put it this way, it could be true (laughs).

Secondly, is it true that you have business interests in PEP stores? I’m hoping to have. I buy enough from there that I should I have.

Finally, is it true that you were born in Spur?Yes. I was born in the bathroom there.

Haha! Cool. I was speaking to a friend of mine who is English, and lives in England. He stumbled across ‘Cooler as Ekke’ on YouTube, and while waiting for it to fully load, he contacted me and asked me to describe what he was about to see. The first word that came to mind was ‘Poesgoed’ (laughs), but he didn’t really understand that. How would you describe your music to an engelsman?



I always say, my music is romantic and dangerous Afrikaans rap.

Haha, that sounds good.

We are in the process of reviewing your album, and are seriously digging it. Some banging tunes. You are a master lyricist, in fact, I’m willing to bet that you are South Africa’s grand master lyricist. How was the experience of recording the album, did you enjoy it, or was it a job to you?

I loved it. It was really good fun. I was part of the whole experience, so I was involved in making the beats and everything. I was basically involved very closely with everything on the album. So, yeah, f**k, I loved it! It was so much fun, to finally get your album out there. I’ve been doing this for 9 years, so to finally get an album out there was really special… and i’m so stoked that everyone digs it so much!

So what was your big break then? How did you suddenly rise to fame? Did you start out on social media like Facebook and Twitter? Or…

I don’t really know, like, I’ve been doing it for f**king long, so I slowly built up a reputation. But then Die Heuwels Fantasties brought out their album and I think that the track that I did on there kind of led to a boom for me, and boosted me, getting my music out there to people who would have previously not listened to me. And then, well, ‘Cooler as Ekke‘ came out, and that’s the story…

Wow, yeah… That video exploded. It is sitting at something like 600 000 hits right?

Yeah, it is crazy…

What was it like collabing with JR. Did you guys make the circle bigger?

(laughs) I actually wasn’t in studio when JR was there. But I’ve been hanging out with JR a lot, and he is really rad guy. Actually, next week I’m going into studio with him, to do a track for his music. He is doing a kind of like a refill vibe, like a short EP vibe, kind of like Eminem. But yeah, he is a f**king cool oak.

Who are your influences? Who did you grow up listening to? I mean, did you used to listen to NWA, or what?

I originally started with Snoop Dogg, which I loved. And then from Snoop, I listened to Eazy-E and then onto groups like NWA and Wu-Tang… but then when I was 16 or 17 I got onto artists and groups like Dr. Octagon… so yeah, but I started with Gangster Rap basically. The GANGSTA RAP SHIT (laughs).

Haha! My personal favourites off your album are ‘Hiers Jy Nou’ and ‘Dans Dans Dans’. Speaking of ‘Dans Dans Dans’, I heard about the video on Twitter and actually saw the video this morning. Tell me, what was it like rapping for Indiana Jones?

(laughs). Yeah, I must say it was crazy hey… It was really cool, but shit it was windy in the desert, so it wasn’t actually that much fun. But it came out really well, and I’m really proud of it…

Apparently the budget was quite big for the video, something like R250 000, is that true?

No. That isn’t true. I don’t know where people got that rumour from. It wasn’t that big…

Cool. Let’s put that rumour to bed. Just a few more things I wanted to ask you. What do you think of Die Antwoord?

Ahh, I dig Die Antwoord. I was actually part of Die Antwoord when it started. One of the first tracks that I did with them was ‘Doosdronk’. But then, you know, I’ve been rapping in crews for so long, that I really wanted to try and do my own thing and go solo…

Okay… So there’s no beef there, you guys actually are friends? So the internet rumours of Die Antwoord vs. Jack Parow are false?

Stuff like that always happens on the internet. We are chilled and good friends. We can’t worry about stuff like that. Yeah, you know, people try to start shit by misquoting me and try and get us to start feuding. So we just decided and said, “look, if there is any kak you hear about us or our friendship, let’s just phone each other first and hear what’s going on”…

That’s excellent, I’m glad to hear that. Jack, you know, with your rise to fame and the hype around your album, you have become one of South Africa’s most popular musical talents at the moment. What is next for you after the release of your album?

I’m going from the 30th of June to the 10th of July to Belgium, The Netherlands, and the UK. Doing a few shows there, some festivals and so on. And then, we are also dealing with going to New Zealand, Japan, Australia, and then Germany and Norway, and yeah, wow, it is going to be madness…

Wow! I hope that you have your passport ready! Just two more questions for you Jack. Do you have an official Facebook and Twitter profile where people can find out more about you?

Yes, my official Twitter profile is @jackparow and I’m on Facebook as well.

Finally, do you have any final words for aspiring rappers out there? What advice can you give them? What advice can you give young musicians that want to follow in your footsteps?

The most important thing is to always stick to your guns. Never change or compromise yourself to do things that people think are cool. Don’t change your style just because that is what is cool at the moment. So yeah, just stick to your guns… Also, it takes f**king time. Some people get it quick, but most of us need to persevere and just keep pushing. But it is all worth it at the end…

And then, you know, one of the things that a rapper said once, I think it was Bran Newbie(sic). ‘If you give up everything for a long period of time, say two years, say you give up everything, including booze and women, and you just focus on one thing. You just focus on one thing, like lyric writing, then you will be f**king good..’

Thank you so much for time Jack Parow. We wish you all the best!

- Bret D
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