Die Antwoord at Culture Room October 22

It takes gigantic cojones to walk away from a million-dollar record deal, and Die Antwoord’s Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er may just have the biggest balls in music. After independently releasing their 2009 debut, $O$, online and generating more blog traffic than a topless photo of Kate Middleton, the South African rave rappers inked a sweet deal with Interscope Records. Or so they thought. “We dig pop. We’re like way into pop,” Ninja (born Watkin Tudor Jones) said in an interview with Brightest Young Things. “But [Interscope was] trying to make us do music that everyone else was doing, like stupid shit, and we were like, ‘No, no, no, that’s not what we talked about in the beginning,’ and then we were like, ‘Hang on, hang on, hang on, this doesn’t feel right.'” Remaining true to its Cape Town Zef Side way of life, the group told Interscope Records to shove a giant wad of cash up its pretentious ass and walked. “They were like, ‘Here’s a million dollars and everything,’ and we’re like, ‘Actually, hang on to that, I don’t really want that.’ The money felt a bit satanic or something. It’s like you finally get to sell your soul to the Devil, and I was like, ‘Oh, fuck…” Naturally, Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er launched their own record label and dropped an incredibly dope sophomore record earlier this year, Ten$Ion.