MIA

I mean on the whole album, not just this song.

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201007/mia-profile

no mention of truffle fries

When GQ asks me for a 7,000-word piece on M.I.A., I agree quickly. (M.I.A.—what fun!) The next day, I wake up with buyer's remorse. Did they say 7,000 words?

what the

is that really

who the hell is g4ry sht3yngart -- never seen that byline in GQ before from what i can recall

Novelist who wrote "The Russian Debutante's Handbook" and "Absurdistan"; some of his work has been featured in the New Yorker.

lol for all the similarities in our cultural interests jordan there are clearly some large non overlapping territories

yeah i don't read the new yorker

hes a pretty famous novelist

you know, for a novelist

I should write that line down.

maybe he should stick to novels

She also drops finer lyrics than just about anyone with a gold chain knocking against his chest.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand there it is

lmao super ilxor convo just there

xp

Seven thousand words, though. Holy shit.

For me, listening to contemporary hip-hop is just a way to summon an attitude, to blend in with a more powerful person's sense of himself and to pretend that I also possess some of that ineffable power

i meant message board ilxor btw not ilxor 'ilxor'

I think to myself, The refugee is strong in this one.

yo this is insufferable -- is this guy "famous for a novelist" to the point where he thinks it's okay to start writing about what he was like in college or?

like, it's not cute to be all "they want me to write so many words!" and then just write boring bullshit and then print it in a magazine -- this is why we have had editors

Ice Cube seemed like he came from a world where the apocalypse had already wiped clean any vestige of hope—an exciting, existentialist posture for a 20-year-old cracker still unsure of how to play the opposite sex.

HOW AM I READING ANOTHER ONE OF THESE ARTICLES

he can peer right into Ice Cube's mind

Since its East Coast inception and up to its recent blinged-out downfall, hip-hop has always been an exhilarating form of tourism for privileged young Americans, a journey into that shit-stained part of the country that always seems so near and yet so far. Bitch, you shoulda put a sock on the pickle, Ice Cube rapped firmly as he educated two guys in a Saab about the correct uses of birth control in a tone no Oberlin woman would ever tolerate. And your pussy wouldn't be blowing smoke signals. Uh, yes, I'll take that with fries.

seriously how can someone even print this -- even a magazine by and for old white men

I stopped seriously listening to music when Ice Cube began appearing in the Friday movies

its recent blinged-out downfall

ban novelists

"Since its East Coast inception
and up to its recent blinged-out downfall
hip-hop has always been an exhilarating form of tourism
for privileged young Americans, a journey
into that shit-stained part of the country that always seems so near
and yet so far. Bitch, you shoulda put a sock on the pickle,
Ice Cube rapped firmly as he educated two guys in a Saab
bout the correct uses of birth control
in a tone no Oberlin woman would ever tolerate
And your pussy wouldn't be blowing smoke signals.
Uh, yes, I'll take that with fries."

http://blog.reidreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/steele-intern.jpg

a tone no Oberlin woman would ever tolerate

amazing

like many men and women stumbling headlong into middle age, I just stopped giving a shit about music.

Despite her ubiquity on every iPhone in Williamsburg, there's clearly still some brand-building ahead for Maya and her label.

a highly valuable opinion

kinda wish people would just stop writing about williamsburg, like, forever.

Six hours later, she approaches my table with a just-got-out-of-bed look, resembling one of the sloe-eyed Israeli girls who sleepily haunted my Hebrew school.

ok i'm down with that

i guess you have to be really good at writing in one genre to be allowed to write so flagrantly bad in another

lol Alfred

Ice Cube seemed like he came from a world where the apocalypse had already wiped clean any vestige of hope—an exciting, existentialist posture for a 20-year-old cracker still unsure of how to play the opposite sex.

theres always something corny when white writers self-referentially refer to themselves as crackers -- like, its referencing quoting black dudes talking about white ppl so why is it quoting what maybe a black panther would have said in '68?? just weirdly outdated -- but other than that this sentence is alright

the others i dunno

this gets much better once he stops talking about himself & what he did with MIA during the interview

ha, diplo stole a line directly from gucci mane for this album, apparently -- i wonder if he'll get a songwriting credit

But if there's another "Paper Planes" on this album, it's "Tell Me Why," a Diplo-produced ditty that has probably the most instant catchphrase—Start throwing your hands up like you're mad at the ceiling!—since André 3000 told us to shake it like a Polaroid picture.

i wonder how this guy would feel if he found out that the best line on maya's album is stolen from the current bastion of rap's blinged out downfall

devastated probably

understandably so

oh lord

that shit is hilarious to me -- how perfect

I haven't read the piece yet but I would like to generally recommend modern fiction and literature, which I think is really good, probably better than Drake

haha the rare but pointed nabisco zing

i stick to non fiction

*non phixion

oh, it's not too pointed, most just kidding.

I do understand and share some of the annoyances of when not-music people get assigned big music features. I think ILM also has plenty of conversations that lit people would find every bit as weird or embarrassing in the other direction, although of course I don't know that many ILM posters would be willing to tackle a magazine feature about a novelist, so it's kind of a different standard.

but there are a couple things here about dude's prose that are a bit like ... they might be different coming from someone who was more steeped in fiction/lit/magazine-writing than music writing? I don't mean that in a snotty way, it's just both things have norms and insides.

liked this profile, psyched for his new book

the new book is really sharp and funny, I'd say much better than the first two

modern fiction can blow me

I haven't read one goddamn new book I've liked in forever