More MIA

[Grievous Angel]

a) The like/dislike of this record seems to founder, quite precisely on whether the listener is from the UK or USA. People from the UK I reckon are more liable to dislike it.

Shit! You're calling me a slimey Yank loving imperialist now!! Or maybe I'm American and I never realised it -- could be an Essex thing...

Speaking for myself, the reason why I find Kanye so damn interesting, is that he's broken open this whole issue of class.

I thought it was cos it's such good music to fuck to? Or is that Stelfox...

Therefore, to pretend you're "working class" (which MIA may or may not inadvertantly have done) is to commit a form of theft, its to commit an act of brutality against oppressed people. And THAT'S another reason why I can't stand the MIA record.

So she may or may not have pretended to be working class, but that pretence is why you hate the record? Bit silly isn't it? Or at least, there's no benefit of the doubt there...

Still. It's only music.

 

[Noah Baby Food]

I heard the MIA record for the first time at the weekend and I think it sounds really good. Not so keen on her voice but yeah, really liked the production.

Really can't stick this forum sometimes...hand-wringing central innit? Someone ring MIA up and find out if she's properly working class, let me know and I'll decide whether or not I like her. In the meantime I'm going to cry my eyes out. phew...

 

[Canada J Soup]

Those chaps at Clear Channel had the right idea in the wake of 9/11. As did the people who decided Massive Attack had to change their name to Massive while the Gulf War was on.

As I recall, Robert Del Naja actually made the name change. He has since stated that he regretted doing this and that it was at the behest of their label but still...


Whether it's House of Pain claiming solidarity with the IRA (which earned one of them a kicking from the crowd at their first Dublin show) or the guitarist from Rage Against The Machine thinking Shining Path Senderistas were equivalent to Sandinistas...selling pop music with unclearly articulated / ambiguous / political stances on contentious issues is (a) leaving yourself wide open for the kind of criticism MIA has received and (b) fucking lame. If you don't know your shit cold and can't back up the statements, don't make them.

(I've never quite been able to forgive Chuck D for "Farrakhan's a prophet" either)

 

[gabriel]

As I recall, Robert Del Naja actually made the name change. He has since stated that he regretted doing this and that it was at the behest of their label but still...

funnily enough, i've heard that they've now dropped the 'attack' bit from their name, though just cos they wanted to, not cos of the war on terror, iraq or any other attack-related thing.

 

[blissblogger]

What, more offensive than using the events of the last few days to score points in an argument about a pop star?.

i knew someone would come back with this lame retort, and i suspected it would be you, flyboy, whoever you are!

yeah considerably more offensive actually

besides which as someone born in london who lived there for a large chunk of his adult life, with lots of friends living in london (and whose publisher is round the corner from russell square AND tavistock square) i feel freshly entitled to feeling repelled by her quasi-provocative posturing

i wonder if she would have the guts to do a 7/7-related picture along the lines of that Hallmarky one she did of the Twin towers as dollar sign?

just couldn't face listening to music produced by people who called themselves "the Bomb Squad" anymore. It's just sick, really, isn't it?
.

don't want to get into any of that deplorable point scoring stuff, but Bomb Squads are the people who go around defusing and detonating suspect devices, aren't they?

but seriously, i always thought PE's politics highly muddled and problematic and distinctly offensive at times -- but they did actually succeed in being provoking of debate and anguished conflicted thought on a mass level -- and also in fusing avant-sound and hardline politics at pop level -- quite postpunky in that respect actually

plus their records were [metaphor alert] the bomb weren't they...

 

[mms]

funnily enough, i've heard that they've now dropped the 'attack' bit from their name, though just cos they wanted to, not cos of the war on terror, iraq or any other attack-related thing.

maybe they've just put on a few pounds and aren't the young soul rebels they were hehe

 

[Flyboy]

besides which as someone born in london who lived there for a large chunk of his adult life, with lots of friends living in london (and whose publisher is round the corner from russell square AND tavistock square) i feel freshly entitled to feeling repelled by her quasi-provocative posturing

Well, as someone who lives in London (etc), I think that the offensiveness of, say, rhyming about your music being like bombs, is not dependant on where the bombs are going off. Obviously violence is going to seem more real when it affects the places and people you know. But my point is that I would hope that London-based people who could enjoy M.I.A.'s music prior to Thursday's events would already have had to come to terms with whether her lyrical content and artwork was offensive/repellent/irresponsible already - implying that they should recosider now doesn't strike me as that dissimilar to the commentators who have said that Londoners who didn't buy into the 'War on Terror' should rethink their attitude.

but seriously, i always thought PE's politics highly muddled and problematic and distinctly offensive at times -- but they did actually succeed in being provoking of debate and anguished conflicted thought on a mass level -- and also in fusing avant-sound and hardline politics at pop level -- quite postpunky in that respect actually

plus their records were [metaphor alert] the bomb weren't they...

This is all true, but all of this can equally be applied to M.I.A., except the mass/pop level. So is it just the fact that the debate and conflicted thought isn't visibly widespread beyond certain sections of the internet and music press that makes M.I.A. more culpable for potentially offensive metaphors?

 

[gumdrops]

well, new yorkers dont seem too bothered about her 'bomb' lyrics.

 

[Omaar]

Singer barred from US entry
Published: Thursday, 25 May, 2006, 11:08 AM Doha Time

LONDON: London rapper M.I.A. has been barred from entering America because of controversial lyrics on her critically acclaimed album.

Maya Arulpragasam, 28, the west London MC who was a refugee from Sri Lanka, is seen as one of the capital’s biggest urban music talents.

But her plan to work with some of America’s top hip-hop producers has been blocked because US Immigration has refused her a visa. On her website blog she tells fans: "Roger, roger do you hear me, over? The US Immigration won’t let me in," before asking her fans to "spread the word" on the Internet and support her.

Her debut album Arular – nominated for last year’s Mercury Music prize – is named after her father, a guerrilla fighter for the Tamil Tigers, the group which has waged a 30-year campaign of terror attacks against the Sri Lankan armed forces.

But the uncompromising tone of her music, which features bomb blasts and lyrics about revolution, has upset the US authorities, even though she had already toured in America.

An employee at her record company, XL Recordings, said she was denied entry because of lyrics which glorify the Tigers’ cause.

He said: "Maya has never shied away from saying what she thinks and her music is no exception.

"Her second single, Sunshowers, tells the story about a suicide bomber in Sri Lanka and also has the words, ‘Like the PLO, I don’t surrender’.

"The lyrics got her video banned on MTV in America. Now the refusal to let her go to the US to work with the likes of Missy Elliott, Timbaland and Kanye West will really set back her career."

Lawyers for XL Recordings are devising a strategy to get her visa approved.

The employee added: "The message at the record company is ‘We must get her in’.

"If she loses out on the American market and misses her chance to work with the global superstars of hip-hop it will be like throwing millions of pounds down the drain."

The US High Commission said it could not comment on individual cases.

Maya was born in Bermondsey. Her family moved back to Sri Lanka but fled again when she was 11. – London Evening Standard

 

[gumdrops]

she was at the vice pub last week when diplo was deejaying. she did some dancehall moves on stage. well she did one and kept doing it over and over. which was fine with me.

 

[nomos]

<object width="400" height="225"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip..._byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip..._byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="225"></embed></object><p><a href="">M.I.A, Born Free</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user3148077">ROMAIN-GAVRAS</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

So this new video, in which MIA takes a stand against... the ginger genocide. Yes it's all a deeply political metaphor aimed at short circuiting a position of privilege which allows us to ignore ethnic cleansing as experienced by non-white peoples around the world. Except it's all surface and boils down to "violence happens to people and is bad, as demonstrated by this 9 minute exercise in decontextualized graphic violence." Seems little more than a new twist on her old strategy of self-exoticization, and politics by snark and vague suggestion.

And put in the context of her recent rants against LaGaga (anything to do with being on Xtina's payroll or pre-album hype?), I think it's fair to say that a video like "Paparazzi" (though eveyone will make the comparison to "Telephone") pulls off a more cogent analysis of bad stuff that goes on.

 

[baboon2004]

Shot by the son of Costa-Gavras, no less.

But you do realise that being ginger is like being black in terms of the oppression you face, no? If MIA didn't tell us, we wouldn't know what was bad.

MIA on Lady Gaga: "None of her music’s reflective of how weird she wants to be or thinks she is."

Monumental facepalm.

 

[zhao]

i suppose it's pretty pointless to say anything about the Music but... terrible.

the impotent political posturing i'm ok with though.

 

[4linehaiku]

Ginger abuse is no joke yo.

 

[baboon2004]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jan/24/gingerism-ginger-prejudice

http://www.youtube.com/user/jennywicksrootginger

The girl's interview is very funny.

 

[4linehaiku]

I definitely get less hassle about it here in Scotland than I did in England, though it wasn't really that bad there either. That girl's story is good, think I'd get smacked if I tried a similar technique though. Had a few street shouters in my time, and they are fucking tedious, but it's never been more than a minor minor annoyance. It's great when you go to other countries though. When I was in Portugal people were shitting themselves, small children actually running at me full tilt with sheer awe in their eyes.

Sorry MIA, but gingers are well better than your new tune. All your tunes in fact.

 

[gumdrops]

i like the political posturing a lot.
and i dont even mind the lyrics.
but this track is prob her worst.
its like her 'head get mangled'.
bad prodigy/dance-rock shite.
im dissapointed in her.
if theres one thing you could count on her for before, it was the beats.

 

[Woebot]

don't mind this new record so much actually! the one with the suicide sample. {hubris} sounds like one of my out-takes {/hubris}

 

[gumdrops]

i like the video.
the song seems dated though.
like how kasabian sounds like unkle or something from the late 90s.
its odd people are already doing stuff that sounds like that.

 

[droid]

What the hell is the name of the film this video rips off?? 'Freedom park' or something? The early 70s one where hippies are kidnapped, set free in the desert and hunted by the police and army?

Its driving me mad.