MIA

I don't see the comparison. MIA's dad was a Tamil revolutionary scholar. It's not just that she's Sri Lankan. (Not to take anything away from your terrific blog btw - I just don't see much point in putting her next to Akon.)

I think the idea is "people whose backgrounds might have helped them have things to say about things like the third world, global poverty, or political violence."

So the compare/contrast is look at four people who grew up in Senegal, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Haiti and how they have or have not chosen to refer to that experience after coming to the west and making pop. Obviously with Akon this is a HUGE "contrast!"

And it's not just about her father or Sri Lanka -- I mean, she pulls music from around the world, records in Liberia, gets Afrikan Boy on a track, mentions spots around the world in songs, talks about a UK immigrant perspective ... I think she's pretty clearly trying to pull together something global with her music, right?

Nabisco, I thought your piece was great - it's what the Hirschberg piece should have been if she was interested in substantively dealing with issues instead of gossip/scoring points. I agree with your points, but I think it's interesting that you made it through a whole piece describing MIA's complicated relationship with the imagery of political violence without once mentioning the words "War on Terror", "9/11", etc. - maybe that stuff has become just part of the air we breathe nowadays so that it doesn't need mentioning, but I think it underestimates the sophistication of MIA's political critique to leave out the other side - namely the side of those like George W. Bush who used the intentionally vague specter of "terrorism" to cudgel political opponents and fuel a hubristic geopolitical program. I think MIA astutely realized that the vagueness around this concept of "terrorism" was a double-edged sword, and she figured out how to play the other side, in a way that could be hip and appealing to many. So you can see it as naive sloganeering, but you can also see her intentional vagueness as part of her message - that "terrorism" has become what I think Frank Kogan would call a "superword" - ie., a word that can settle disputes based on who has the authority to apply it.

Anyways, I'm in the mood to forgive MIA a lot right now, since I just heard the Sleigh Bells album for the first time. Holy shit!

im not sure that 'at least shes not gwb' is a good enough reason to give her a pass for being just as cartoony

I think that MIA, like anyone else in her artist class/position, felt a little entitled and then burned by that immigration snafu. If memory serves, she upped the stridency level significantly shortly thereafter, no doubt encouraged by the notion that getting shut out of the US for a bit bought her some extra cred.

Two more things: since "Kala" came out, I've wondered to myself the significance of "recorded in Liberia." What does this even mean, symbolically? Why there?

Also, much more than the silly truffle-kerfuffle, MIA's cheeky boast that she basically remade he LA mansion into a "commune" with 8 of her friends rubbed me the wrong way, like she was justifying the largess by, like, spinning it into a move for the people. I mean, gosh, they even had to buy the house next door to make more room!

Oh, and a genuine question: what is the general feeling toward MIA in the UK, where her origins might resound a little more loudly than they do in the US? Since we are talking race and politics and racial politics, I'd suggest her exotic "otherness" as a person of Indian descent is greatly overestimated, at least in America, which is generally preoccupied by Latinos and persons of African descent, discourse-wise, for obvious historic and/or geographic reasons.

Oh, and Nabisco, you're right: there is something larger, more "global" at work with MIA. But I can't quite put my finger on how it differs from the international ways of, say, Bjork, whose music is just as much a polyglot hodge-podge.

im not sure that 'at least shes not gwb' is a good enough reason to give her a pass for being just as cartoony

― its like why GROCERY BAG and not saddam? (deej), Friday, June 4, 2010 8:38 PM (31 minutes ago)

lol thread connections

so what did people think of the fashion spread in the magazine? the silence is deafening!

burn baby burn

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/misc/pixel.gif

i haven't really read hardly any of this thread, but i agree with Dan, and tbh i find myself lazily falling into this kind of judgment of M.I.A. myself all the time.

Dan, if you haven't read it already, I think you would dig the essay "Where Have All the Natives Gone?" by Rey Ch0w.

hs have you read [nabisco]'s piece yet

That Diamanda > Timbaland thing linked way upthread is batshit but this line is A+

"The BIGGEST problem with your sampling, TOOL- LW(u)B(e), is that afterwards our music smells of your shit."

(no idea what TOOL-LW(u)B(e) means)

nabisco's piece is really good, and o. nate is also otm with this:

I think MIA astutely realized that the vagueness around this concept of "terrorism" was a double-edged sword

i mean, piracy funds terrorism was a great, cheeky, punky title at its precise moment, and her positioning was definitely a response to the way "terrorism" was being used by the bush administration and western governments more generally, as a pretext for all kinds of neo-imperialist bullshit. otoh, responding to that is in itself basically accepting a western framing of the subject, and nabisco is right that her basic framing really is western no matter what kind of global-south persona she likes to put on.

on the other other hand, it's interesting to me how much all of this discussion really kind of mirrors the debates about the social relevance/responsibility of gangsta rap 15-20 years ago. in both cases you have artists indulging violent fantasies and adopting fashionably rebel personas, while insisting that they're just telling it like it is. (and you wouldn't understand, cuz you're not from the 'hood.) in that sense i think she's been successful at taking the gangsta template and expanding it to fit her needs.

the lyrics to Born Free make it a better response song to the recent controversy.

Also, MIA isn't REALLY incendiary. It has like the tone of being incendiary, but saying, "I'm not pro peace, I'm pro violence," is pretty banal under scrutiny. Is she saying that she believes that political difference should be settled through violence and not compromise? Is she saying that all politics are founded on coercive power? Is she saying that all states have a history of violence that they cover up? Is she saying that genocide is good if you don't get along with the people you like? Is she saying sometimes it just feels good to hit something? I mean, it's sound incendiary, but it's not actually saying anything at all.

the whole "saying nothing" claim falls apart if you're pulling four distinct possible interpretations for an offhand NYT quote.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jun/13/mia-feature-miranda-sawyer
Guardian piece and whatnot.

http://www.7digital.com/artists/m-i-a/y/?src=HottestBoxuk

Snippets of every track right there.

really stoked for this. "tell me why"!!!

http://rebelfrequencies.blogspot.com/2010/06/why-hirschberg-is-wrong.html

Regardless of the crap nature of Hirschberg's article, the phone number thing was a straight-up dick move.

A hilarious straight-up dick move.

let's just keep repeating those two sentiments eternally.

"radical music journalism", eh

the only fitting sort to cover m.i.a.'s "radical political music"

"Regardless of the crap nature of Hirschberg's article, the phone number thing was a straight-up dick move.
A hilarious straight-up dick move."

Does Buddyhead still post Fred Durst's new phone number every Ash Wednesday?

http://rebelfrequencies.blogspot.com/2010/06/why-hirschberg-is-wrong.html

Okay, as someone who thought the Hirschberg story was a piece of shit, I kind of feel obligated to tell this person that massively brownnosing M.I.A. will not convince her to fuck you.

What would M.I.A. think if Hirschberg had posted her cell phone number? Dick move?

M.I.A. doesn't use technology created by the CIA, duh

So any thoughts on the album yet? The two reggae-ish cuts are sort of weird, and I liked Meds and Feds better when it didnt have vocals and was called "Treats" but otherwise, it's pretty decent. Mostly unexpected/not at all reminiscent of the first two albums - a less direct/foreseeable step but a neat one nonetheless.

It Takes A Muscle is a cover of.. this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMVX5EH4lvs

Supposedly this has leaked...and there's been no discussion. It can't be that disappointing right?

I heard it leaked in pretty low quality.

Apparently I have "standards" about leaks.

i really don't think any conclusions can be drawn, at this point, about what the critical and/or popular response to the album will be. in fact, if i had to guess, i think the backlash against mia won't arrive until album no. 4.

ppl will care about the record itself for at least a week

i rather like it. it's sharp and noisy.

So any thoughts on the album yet? The two reggae-ish cuts are sort of weird, and I liked Meds and Feds better when it didnt have vocals and was called "Treats" but otherwise, it's pretty decent. Mostly unexpected/not at all reminiscent of the first two albums - a less direct/foreseeable step but a neat one nonetheless.

― Alex in Montreal

Then you might want to listen to the source sample:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnSuRHiW988

I have! That was what I meant. I adore the Sleigh Bells LP and when I heard that Derek Miller would be doing some production on /\/\/\Y/\ I had anticipated Sleigh Bells-esque beats for M.I.A., not a straight rip of one of my favourite moments on Treats, marred by so-so vocals.

lol ok sorry, I sort of expected you already knew the source sample but didn't want to draw any conclusions since it seems noone else has mentioned the Sleigh Bells connection in this thread. Yeah, gotta agree MIA's vocals on this one are extremely lazy... feels like she's excusing her apathy by quoting post-punk.

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