Watkin Tudor Jones

Watkin Tudor Jones
Jones in December 2012
Background information
Birth name	Watkin Tudor Jones
Also known as	Ninja Max Normal The Man Who Never Came Back MC Totally Rad Yang Weapon Destructo Waddy WAD:e[1] Ninjie[2]
Born	(1974-09-26) 26 September 1974 Johannesburg, South Africa
Genres	Alternative hip hop rave Zef
Years active	1993–present
Labels	Interscope Cherrytree [3]Polydor Rhythm Records Zef
Associated acts	Yolandi Visser The Original Evergreen MaxNormal.TV The Constructus Corporation Fucknrad Die Antwoord

Watkin Tudor Jones (born 26 September 1974^[4]), also known by his stage name Ninja and formerly Max Normal, is a South African rapper, record producer, and actor, best known for his role as frontman of rap-rave group Die Antwoord.

Jones comes from Johannesburg, South Africa where he attended Parktown Boys' High School. Jones left school in 1992, one year before graduating. He now spends his time between Los Angeles and Cape Town.

Jones was a part of South African hip-hop scene for many years. He has had many different stage personas, including with the Sibot-produced The Fantastic Kill and Markus Wormstorm-produced promo-only EP "Emmanuel Rothchild - My Favourite Songs" and "Markus Wormstorm Is Not Gay", and fronting such acts as The Original Evergreen, MaxNormal.TV and The Constructus Corporation.^[5] He is best known as Ninja from Die Antwoord.

Jones has embarked on various other endeavors, notably graphic art and stuffed animal making.

Yolandi Visser, Jones's 'platonic soul mate',^[6] has been a frequent collaborator and is also a member of Die Antwoord. The two have a daughter together, named Sixteen.^[7]

Max Normal

Jones was the lead vocalist of Max Normal, a live hip hop act, which released their debut album entitled Songs From The Mall in 2001. The band performed at various festivals around South Africa, including Up the Creek, Splashy Fen, and Oppikoppi. They also played in London and three shows at the Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium.^[8] A second version of this band evolved into the 'corporate' hip-hop group MaxNormal.tv in which they released an album, Good Morning South Africa, in 2008 with a sound not unlike the later-formed and more well-known group "Die Antwoord." They were a South African hip-hop crew that performed live wearing three-piece suits while frontman MaxNormal delivered his motivational speaking style raps to the audience. He also illustrated his lyrics to help the audience follow which were projected onto a big screen above the live performers and are triggered live to the beat by Max's personal assistant, Yolandi Visser, in a PowerPoint presentation style.

In early 2002, Jones disbanded Max Normal, just as the band was reaching South African stardom, headlining festivals like Oppikoppi and charting on 5FM (citing being creatively stifled as reason). He relocated to Cape Town and began collaborating with DJ Dope of Krushed & Sorted and Felix Laband on the music for a multi-media project he had conceptualised involving a graphic novel with soundtrack and live show. These sessions spawned the Man Who Never Came Back track on African Dope's Cape Of Good Dope compilation in 2002, but gradually mutated into The Constructus Corporation outfit. Yolandi Visser, listed as Anica The Snuffling on the credits, was also involved.

The Constructus Corporation

When Jones disbanded Max Normal in early 2002, he and long-time DJ partner Sibot invited Markus Wormstorm and Felix Laband to collaborate on his ambitious The Constructus Corporation project, which resulted in the concept album / graphic novel The Ziggurat (ADOPECD009 African Dope Records 2002).^[9]

After a production process including mix and master by Krushed & Sorted, In June 3rd, 2002, "The Ziggurat" was released. This is an 88-page pink hard-covered book containing a hand-written hiphop fantasy story by Jones, which follows the adventures of two kids on a giant futuristic floating world / shopping mall called The Ziggurat, with detailed etched digital illustrations by artist Nikhil Singh, a soundtrack CD on which Jones plays several different characters, and a bonus blank CD at the back of the book with instructions on where to download an entire second album of music and narrations for free, with which to fill the CD. The Constructus Corporation disbanded in 2003 after releasing The Ziggurat.

Die Antwoord

Die Antwoord is a rap-rave group formed in 2008 and composed of Ninja, Yolandi Visser and DJ Hi-Tek.^[10] The band self-identifies as a melange of several diverse cultures all mixed into one.^[10] Die Antwoord toured Europe in April 2010 and the USA later that same year.^[10] Their debut album $O$ was made available as a free download on their official website.^[11] In late 2009 South African cinematographer Rob Malpage co-directed (with Jones), co-produced (with Left Films and Die Antwoord) and lensed the video for their single "Enter the Ninja."^[12] The promo became a viral video on the internet nine months later, delivering millions of hits to the official Die Antwoord website, eventually crashing the website's server.^[10] The video also features South African progeria sufferer Leon Botha, a prominent Cape Town artist.^[13] Die Antwoord performs "Zef" music, zef being a South African slang term that describes a unique South African style which is modern while including out-of-date, discarded cultural and style elements.^[10] Their lyrics are humorous and explicit, and performed in both Afrikaans and English.^[10][11][14] Members of the band consider themselves as hip hop artists, but specifically refer to their music as zef rap-rave.^[15]

Acting career

Jones has appeared in nonspeaking roles in various South African Nando's Commercials with South African comedian Marc Lottering.^[16]

In 1995's direct-to-video film sequel Kickboxer 5,^[17][18] Jones had a supporting role as a prison inmate.

In 2011, Jones along with Yolandi Visser starred in the short film "Umshini Wam" which is a popular Zulu struggle song meaning "bring me my machine gun" and was directed by Harmony Korine.

In 2015, Jones, along with Yolandi Visser, costarred in Neill Blomkamp's science-fiction film Chappie.^[19] The film features the songs "Baby's On Fire", "Ugly Boy", "Cookie Thumper" and "Enter the Ninja" from his band Die Antwoord.^[20]

Personal life

Jones was born in Johannesburg in 1974. He has a daughter named Sixteen with Yolandi Visser.^[7] Sixteen occasionally appears in Die Antwoord videos, including "I Fink U Freeky" together with Watkin's relative, Marthinus. Jones has stated that he and Visser are not in a relationship.^[21]

Jones frequently contradicts himself about his personal history: he has stated that he and Yolandi have known each other since childhood,^[22] but has also said they met as adults.^[23] He has stated that his father has been shot and his brother took his own life.^[23]

Discography

With The Original Evergreen

• Puff The Magik (1995) single

As a solo artist

• Memoirs of a Clone (2001 Chameleon records)
• The Fantastic Kill (2005)

With Max Normal

• Songs From The Mall (2001 Chameleon records)

With The Constructus Corporation

• The Ziggurat (2002)

As The Man Who Never Came Back

• Cryptycism on Cape Town Beats (2007) single

With Fucknrad

• MC Totally Rad And DJ Fuck Are Fucknrad (2007)

As MaxNormal.TV

• Good Morning South Africa (2008)

With Die Antwoord

• $O$ (2009)
• 5 EP (2010)
• $O$ Re-release (2010)
• EKSTRA EP (2010)
• TEN$ION (2012)
• Donker Mag (2014)
• Chappie (2015)
• Suck on This (2016)
• Mount Ninji and Da Nice Time Kid (2016)

See also

• List of Afrikaans singers

References

External links

• Watkin Tudor Jones at the Internet Movie Database
• Watkin Tudor Jones Discography at discogs.com
• The Constructus Corporation Discography at discogs.com
• The Constructus Corporation Ziggaurat Album page on African Dope