MIA

debate is a bit too high strung for its own good but honestly itt people needlessly hardmanning deej for not liking mia's contribution to 'paper planes.' or am i missing something?

― samosa gibreel, Wednesday, May 12, 2010 8:49 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

^this statement is the equivalent of going "no, 7 + 3 = 4"

oh no someone disagrees about mia lets shit about it

fwiw jordan did you just post the equivalent of 'no you are' or did i miss something

that's what i'm sayin

xxp- not sure what you mean by that, and like i know this debate has now gotten to the point of everyone just nodding their heads in disapproval but somewhere along the line everything just became real dumb and furious

that's what i'm sayin

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, May 12, 2010 9:01 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

has 'no you are' ever given someone the higher ground

i'm just loling at the idea of deej being the victim of needless hardmanning

i dunno its pretty much me against the world in this thread

er 'itt'

who knew a board full of critics would be so defensive about MIA

lol at u

http://old.firstup.se/mia_am4.gif

http://old.firstup.se/mia_am2.gif

i don't agree with deej insofar as i like 'paper planes' a lot, but my experience reading this thread was like, a lot of posters coming on way too strongly and furiously to a really inane argument about one dude's (uncontroversial imo) reasons for not liking a song. i don't mean to be the guy who shows up and says "lol what a dumb thread" more like "ok why is everyone's brow suddenly drenched in sweat?"

Jaime Martinez is dope.

http://www.neetrecordings.com/jaime/#/14

one dude's (uncontroversial imo) reasons for not liking a song

you realize that this isn't at all what the thread is about, right?

spinspin, you should post more images that everyone saw on blogs two weeks ago. do you have the new interpol promo photos?

y'all are still talking about M.I.A. when a new National record just came out???

see J0rdan, it worked! I got you to stop talking about stupid shit!

we stopped talking about uffie weeks ago

and the moral of the story is...holding grudges on message boards (about pop-stars no less) is nagl.

you're calling uffie a pop star?

dude...

group hug y'all!

constant repetition = the only thing wrong with anybody's position in this thread. otherwise, it's fine to say that mia's not bringing anything to her samples, just like it's fine to call that a hollow argument.

"I find the new Justin Bieber video more violent and more of an assault to my eyes and senses than what I've made."

Rolling CHALLENGING OPINIONS thread 2008

its really not fine to call it a 'hollow argument' unless u are going to put forward something worthwhile that she is doing

several such arguments have been made on this thread and you aren't interested in listening to them, though

its really not fine to call it a 'hollow argument' unless u are going to put forward something worthwhile that she is doing

― Gifted Unlimited Display Names Universal (deej)

to my mind, that's adding something. i guess to you, it isn't, but i don't think there's a right or wrong here. that's why it seems reasonable to call your argument hollow: it's predicated entirely on subjective appreciation, just like mine. unless you're really arguing that she's failing to do some necessary thing on a fundamental level. but i can't imagine what that might be, or how you'd define/measure it.

wait so both your arguments are hollow?

'cause its time to bring the fire down
throttle all this indiscretion
long enough to edify
and permanently fill this hollow

...like, just take the cadence. her voice isn't rhythmically duplicating anything in "straight to hell". not precisely, and it's not like she's mumbling, diffident, mostly buried in the mix (the way she is on "born free"). she's in control of "paper planes", making the song bend to her will, like she knows exactly where she's going and why she's hitting those beats. that interaction and command = "doing something". "born free" lacks that quality, and i think that's why i quickly tired of it. the additional noise pumps up the suicide sample, making it more aggressive and less hypnotic, but the overall vibe doesn't change much, and maya's mostly just tagging along, even on the chorus. imo.

i can understand someone not liking born free for the reasons you're explaining, but to me it's like "thank god someone took that suicide bassline and made it really loud and noisy and brought it up in the mix"

it just provides a pleasant, smoked-out ride through the verses, like driving around town on an early summer evening with nowhere to go.

its a song about robbing ppl at gunpoint iirc

yeah, but that's just silly talk. we know she's not really robbing anybody, like when we sing along and make finger-guns, we know we don't mean any harm. the song conveys no more real threat than "steal my sunshine". "straight to hell", on the other hand, is genuinely creepy, and genuinely political, even in its sonics.

i don't think i'm gonna get an okay out of you no matter what i say

i dunno i think what your posting is at least a better shot @ dialogue w/ what im saying than miccio trolling

i mean, i still disagree w/ your conclusion. i think a lighthearted we know shes not REALLY robbing song is kinda ... in poor taste? corny?

What I get out of if it's more about being in a shitty position and wishing you could take it out on the people holding you down by robbing some motherfuckers but realizing you aren't exactly M.O.P. or whatever.

ffs it's a fantasy of third-world power that has its roots in the assertion of real, actual third-world power -- global-south immigrants might not really be border-busting superagents, in the same way that MI5 dudes aren't really james bond, but they really do go from here to there to where they want to, in huge numbers, and they really are up to expropriating a whole lot of western money. granted, mostly via doing shitty jobs for shitty pay, but "paper planes" is a romanticized vision of economic reality. it's a great song, and it's smart, and catchy too. and as emblematic of real things in the world of its time as any song i can think of.

(and pretending that it's all about the sample is silly. i love the clash more than most ilxors, and that song, too. but "paper planes" finds new rhythmic and melodic possibilities in the sample. which is sort of the point of good sampling.)

it does?? can you expound on that cuz as far as i can tell its just a straight up loop.

ffs it's a fantasy of third-world power that has its roots in the assertion of real, actual third-world power -- global-south immigrants might not really be border-busting superagents, in the same way that MI5 dudes aren't really james bond, but they really do go from here to there to where they want to, in huge numbers, and they really are up to expropriating a whole lot of western money. granted, mostly via doing shitty jobs for shitty pay, but "paper planes" is a romanticized vision of economic reality. it's a great song, and it's smart, and catchy too. and as emblematic of real things in the world of its time as any song i can think of.

― women are a bunch of dudes (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, May 12, 2010 11:07 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

you get all this from those lyrics?? to me those lyrics are a bunch of random hustling signifiers, it might as well be a mike jones song

i mean how do u even get that shes singing from the perspective of 'global-south immigrants'

"if you catch me at the border, i got visas in my name"

"third-world democracy/ we got more records than the kgb"

and i mean the song is called paper planes, it's about the importance of documents--not having them, fabricating them, staying a step ahead of the people who want to see them. not that its politics are what made it a hit, but i don't think they hurt either. it taps into a romantic outlaw version of globalization.

as far as i can tell its just a straight up loop

right, exactly. hence the new possibilities. "straight to hell" moves on from that intro to its own basic riff and beat (which are great), but "paper planes" holds onto it and turns it into a foundation itself, opening it up and building on it.

^^^this is probably a better argument than mine (tipsy xposts). i wasn't taking the song's politics at all seriously.

still think that the feeling it generates (and i was talking more about that than its literal meaning) is vastly different and much lighter in spirit than "straight to hell". though this is another unsupported generalization in a thread overloaded with them, i'd bet that it's pop success has more to do with its seeming triviality than with its actual lyrical intent. but maybe i'm not giving the song, the singer or the audience enough credit.

so whats 'sticks and stones and weed and bombs'

'running when we hit em lethal poison in their system'

huh?? how does that relate to the american immigrant experience. its guerilla chic, i dont buy this "its actually capturing the experience of immigrants" thing. its no diff than any rap song playing off outlaw cool, except the artist in question isnt really doing much for me as a dramatic figure/pop star/hero ... the track feels a lot more like a self-congratulatory play on revolutionary/'3rd world democracy' as an affect or something that doesnt feel particularly visceral or real.

i mean 'we pack and deliver like ups trucks / already going to hell just pumping that gas' these arent 'immigrants' they're guerillas.