On New Years Eve, M.I.A. released what remains a fave album (mixtape -same difference) of 2011, Vickileekz, a piece of awesome agitprop. It got me back to MAYA, which I essentially dismissed in 2010. It sounds real good in 2011. Both Beyonce and Lady Gaga owe her props. Listen to "Stepping Up" -the beats are surreal, there is nothing like it but lotsa folks wish they could do it.
As for her pro violence rationalization on a political level: freedom of speech is freedom of unpopular speech. The answer to repression on a political level is often violence, it is sophistication of the worst case to claim otherwise.
The secret to M.I.A. is one I clearly understand because it was my own father's secret. She was raised in abject poverty and the effect never weakens, never loosens its grip, is never forgotten and never ever goes away. My Grandfather was cannon fodder in a long forgotten war when my Dad was 3 years old. My Grandmother ended up in an insane asylum when they were clearly insane asylums and my father was still a child. He ended up very rich but you could smell the poverty on him, it effected him on every level till the day he died. That's the way childhood poverty is: Charles Dickens had the same type of childhood and read "Nicholas Nickleby" or "David Copperfield" and see how it stays. French fries with truffles will only hide so much, after that M.I.A. is precisely who she says she is and she fights Lady Gaga and the other musicians so clearly influenced by her because she spent her childhood fighting for every crumb of bread.
Her producer Diplo is a giant at what he does. Whether producing, DJing or working with his band Major Lazer, he is one of a handful of true greats on the techno scene,. His work with M.I.A. was exemplary. Here is what he had to say to WWD Magazine as reported by Clash: "Maya left her open for attacks. She's not an easy artist to criticize because she's very left-leaning, she's progressive, she's a woman" he insisted. "But when it comes to die-hard, facts-on-the-ground politics, she's at zero. She's nothing."
"I told her at the beginning of the third record, do not bring politics into this … You just can't glamorize terrorism, it's not cool … you can't hide behind that shit. But she totally did … And Lynn Hirschberg just ate it up. If she didn't, the critics would have ate her up anyway because the record wasn't good."
"She got famous after 'Paper Planes'. She had already thrown in the towel when that record came out. Before that she was like, 'I'm retiring. I'm going to marry this guy, fuck it.' Then 'Paper Planes' blew up and she was like: 'Oh shit, I gotta take advantage of this. I'm actually an artist now.'"
Oh really? M.I.A. was so hungry for success that she wrote an album which explained another view of terrorism, essentially throwing a bomb into the middle of her career; something Diplo for one absolutely warned her against? Right? Right?
Look: here is the secret about terrorism, in any fight for liberty, the forces out of power are terrorists. Cmon, fuck that shit. The Israelis and the Palestinians, the Hutus and Tutsis, the Irish Republican Army: every single one a terrorist at some point or another. I don't mind killing Moslem fanatics as long as I don't have to be self-righteous about it -as long as I don't pretend that war is war and while I want the States to win by any means necessary, I am still not a good guy by definition because of it. In a war, you choose your side.Alright with me. But I am not gonna pretend there isn't another side to the story.
Is M.I.A. a fame whore or a terrorist sympathizer, Diplo? She can't be both.