Anri du Toit, better known professionally as Yolandi Visser, is a South African rapper. She is the female vocalist in the rap-rave group Die Antwoord. Visser also appeared in the 2015 Neill Blomkamp film Chappie.
Early life
Born in Port Alfred, South Africa, du Toit was adopted by a clergyman, Rev. Ben du Toit, and his wife. She has an adoptive older brother, Leon. Growing up, she has said she felt like she didn't fit in or belong anywhere, and describes herself as 'a little punk' who frequently got into fistfights. At 16, du Toit was sent to a boarding school 9 hours away from her family's home where she says that she blossomed among other creative and artistic-minded people.
Du Toit was asked by Watkin Tudor Jones to lend vocals for his project The Constructus Corporation. She was credited as Anica the Snuffling. The band released their debut and only album The Ziggurat in 2003.
MaxNormal.TV
du Toit was a member of the South African 'corporate' hip-hop group MaxNormal.TV, in which she played the role of Max Normal's personal assistant. In MaxNormal.TV, she went by the stage name Yolandi Visser. In the song 'Tik Tik Tik', du Toit's fictional backstory is detailed. The song claims that she was born into poverty in a large family, and eventually ran away out of boredom and loneliness. In 'Option A', she meets a drug dealer, and eventually begins working for him, transporting drugs in exchange for food and money. She becomes addicted to meth, and regrets her choices. In 'Option B', she ignores the drug dealer when he tried to talk to her, and instead begins working at a cafe, and rents a room there. She then is offered to join MaxNormal.TV after watching a rap show outside the cafe. The group released their debut and only album Good Morning South Africa in 2008. A DVD featuring 13 skits, music videos and short films was released in the same year, titled Goeie More Zuid Afrika.
Die Antwoord
du Toit is currently a member of the South African rap-rave group Die Antwoord. The group was formed by du Toit, her then-partner Ninja, and producer HITEK5000. They have since added a second producer Lil2Hood. Die Antwoord is part of the South African counterculture movement known as Zef. For the band, du Toit goes by the stage name ¥o-Landi Vi$$er. She styled her hair into a bleach-blonde mullet at the start of the band, which was originally done to have an edge. She has said cutting her hair felt like a birth, and a statement of outsider and zef pride. The band released their debut album$O$ in 2009. It was made freely available online and attracted international attention for their music video "Enter the Ninja". They briefly signed with Interscope Records, and left after pressure from the label to be more generic. du Toit explained that Interscope "kept pushing us to be more generic" in order to make more money: "If you try to make songs that other people like, your band will always be shit. You always gotta do what you like. If it connects, it's a miracle, but it happened with Die Antwoord.". They formed their own independent label, Zef Recordz and released their second album Tension through it. They have since released 2 other albums; Donker Mag in 2014, and Mount Ninji and da Nice Time Kid in 2016. As well as this, du Toit played a self-styled role as ¥o-Landi Vi$$er in the 2015 Neill Blomkamp film Chappie.
Controversy
Zheani Sparkes
In March 2019, Australian musician Zheani Sparkes released a diss track titled "The Question" detailing an alleged sexual assault on her by du Toit's Die Antwoord bandmate Watkin Tudor Jones in South Africa in 2013. Sparkes claimed that Jones drugged her and trafficked her to Africa, that he sent explicit photos of her to cast members of Chappie, and that he was interested in her because of her resemblance to his and du Toit's daughter Sixteen Jones, who in 2013 was 8. Du Toit vehemently defended Jones in response to the allegations. Sparkes alleged du Toit assisted Jones in trafficking her to South Africa.
In 2019, a video from 2012 surfaced, showing du Toit and Jones fighting with Hercules and Love Affair founder Andy Butler at the Australian festival Future Music while calling him homophobic insults, such as "faggot". Butler openly identifies as gay. After fighting him, du Toit and Jones alert security staff, and, while crying, du Toit claims she was sexually assaulted in a bathroom by Butler. Later on in the video, Jones tells her that her performance was "Oscar-winning". Jones responded on Facebook, claiming that the person who filmed the video edited it to make it seem like they were in the wrong. He claims that Butler harassed them in the days leading up to the fight, and that it had nothing to do with him being gay. Jones said he told du Toit to act as "dramatic as possible" about what Butler did to avoid getting detained by security after the fight. Die Antwoord was subsequently dropped from the lineup of several upcoming festivals. The incident only went viral after a video was placed online seven years later by former Die Antwoord videographer Ben Crossman.
Personal life
Du Toit has a daughter, Sixteen Jones, who was born in 2005 from a previous relationship with Die Antwoord bandmate Watkin Tudor Jones. She also has three adopted children. Tokkie and his sister Meisie were adopted in 2010, and Jemile was adopted in 2015.
