Anti Establishment Bitches
May 20th 2008 01:04
M.I.A has dished out her own version of reality in her new album Kala, one that doesn’t necessarily sit comfortably next to the regular intake of mainstream Western music. Setting herself apart from the likes of ‘hardcore’ rappers such as 50 Cent, M.I.A steps things up a gear; rhyming about bombs not guns.
The London born Sri Lanken’s film clip Sunshowers, has been banned by MTV for its lyrics “Like the PLO I don’t surrendo”. M.I.A has taken the world by storm in these edgy times, with a new sound and a political mantra that Westerners simply aren’t used to. Like her ideals, M.I.A’s music comes “from a place where kids throw rocks at tanks, where people pull down walls with their bare hands” according to Sasha Frere from the New Yorker. After being born in London, M.I.A (formerly known as Maya Arulpragasam), was quickly taken back to live in Sri Lanka where her father was actively fighting in the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS). The EROS was against the majority forces in Sri Lanka, and when their home town became too dangerous Maya’s mother grabbed her and her two siblings and moved to rural India.
After her house and school were burnt down and thousands of people were “disappearing”, Maya and her family fled to London. Living in housing commissions wafts of hip-hop and rap floated over the fence; Maya’s first dose of Western music.
Maya began to morph into M.I.A when she attended a College of Art and Design in London, studying film, video and fine art. Whilst also being heavily into design and making her own clothes, it seemed there was one more art form Maya had yet to conquer; music. Making her first mix tape with a borrowed 505, someone at Elastica Management accidentally pressed play in stead of record and instantly, they wanted to know who the singer was.
Whilst M. I.A never explicitly declares her political stance, her first album was named after her father’s rebel code name: Arular. Aside from her grimy collage of sound, with beats from her second album being recorded on ancient Chillian temple drums, M.I.A’s lyrics thrust her to the heights of recognition in the underground music scene in 2005. Vague threats could be derived from some of her lyrics “I got the bombs to make you blow/I got the beats to make you bang”; “Growin’ up, brewin’ up, guerrilla getting’ trained up/ Look out, look out from over the rooftop” which feature in her debut hit Galang.
There may be speculation over her anti establishment approach, but there is no questioning the momentum and popularity she has single handedly accumulated. In one of M.I.A’s first shows in London, people were singing her lyrics before her album had even been released and the crowd was reported to be “near hysterical” by a local journalist. With her sultry voice and fashionably awkward dress sense however, M.I.A knew she was never going to fit in. “When you’re in England.. dark brown doesn’t look good against grey. I’m constantly badly lit”, she jokes.
But being badly lit however has added to MIA’s appeal, with audiences embracing her world wide. Whilst her outlandish lyrics and unprecedented style have attracted as much criticism as praise, one thing is for sure; she can’t be ignored.
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