M.I.A. (Musician)

Spoek Mathambo

M.I.A. Drives The Action In The "Bad Girls" Video

In other "M.I.A. in a video" news, this morning also marked the premiere of the clip for "Bad Girls," a fleshed-out-by-Danja version of a track from her ViCKi LEEKZ mixtape. In the clip, Maya struts her stuff through a post-apocalyptic tableau where the highways are so empty, drivers can (and do) en ... More >>

Dominique Young Unique

The Wayward Crucifixion of M.I.A.

On the dodgy, opportunistic, truffle-fry-fueled campaign against both Maya and Maya

M.I.A.'s ViCKi LEEKX Mixtape: A 2010 Victory Lap and a Notice To The Haters

​For those who wondered in 2010 what had become of M.I.A.'s once seemingly unerring pop instincts, ViCKi LEEKX--the free mixtape she released in the middle of the night on New Year's Eve--provides a provisional answer: she did it all on purpose. Putting out your new mixtape at the precise hour ... More >>

Live: M.I.A. Redeems Herself With A Wildly Successful (Really!) Free Show At Brooklyn Bowl

​Looks like everyone had fun this time. Pics by Puja, more below.​M.I.A./Rye Rye Brooklyn Bowl Wednesday, October 6 These days, going to see M.I.A. perform comes with a healthy dose of trepidation. For loyalists -- those who choose to blame her rather tumultuous year mostly on bad luck ... More >>

Week In Review: Kill Harvilla, But Get Belly To Reunite First

​It was the week White America lost its mind, as did the guy who wrote a song called "Kill Harvilla" and sent us both the lyrics (not bad) and the instrumental MP3 (very bad). But we here at SOTC prefer more constructive exercises, like listing every '90s band that hasn't reunited yet. A lot o ... More >>

M.I.A.'s Free Show Will Be October 6th at Brooklyn Bowl

The good news: M.I.A. is finally doing her long promised free make-up show at Brooklyn Bowl. The bad news: she seems (not surprisingly) to be doing it without the help of HARD, her original partners in the endeavor, which means no apparent special treatment for ticket holders from the original Jul ... More >>

So It Seems Like That Long-Promised Free M.I.A. Show Will Be at Brooklyn Bowl

She promised it, added some caveats, got blasted by HARD, and was finally threatened with local protest over not having it, but it seems like M.I.A. will at last be playing that free make-up show to make good on the one that didn't go so well, back in July. The email she cites in the above tweet s ... More >>

Meet The Guy Who Wants To Protest Outside M.I.A.'s Terminal 5 Show Because It's Not Free

He's got a good slogan and everything​Mark Mazzye, a 28-year-old graphic designer here in NYC, is one of the unfortunate souls who witnessed M.I.A.'s semi-disastrous headlining set at July's HARD Festival. The one so problematic she promised to do a free show here to make it up to everybody. E ... More >>

HARD Fest on M.I.A.'s Free New York Show: "We Don't Really Want To Be Involved"

M.I.A. at HARD Fest in July. Photo by Jens Joller.​M.I.A.'s July HARD Fest imbroglio has now been well documented: the rain and poor sound that torpedoed her set; the ensuing argument over who had failed who; M.I.A.'s subsequent promise to make it up to all those who had been there with a free ... More >>

M.I.A. Will Being Doing That Free New York Show Just As Soon As the United States Lets Her Mother Into the Country to See It

Why does America hate this woman? Photo via @_M_I_A_​To quickly recap: back in July, M.I.A.'s HARD Fest set ended in a deluge of rain, lightning, and recrimination. It went so badly it caused us to wonder if her 2010 was cursed. In the aftermath, she tweeted a promise: she'd be back in NYC, fo ... More >>

Yes, M.I.A. Is Still Doing A Free New York Show, Somewhere, Sometime

Let's try this again, shall we? Pic by Puja Patel.​So M.I.A.'s last show here, headlining July's HARD Festival at Governors Island, was an unpleasant experience for all involved, due to some combination of technical difficulty, weather calamity, and further bad mojo from her seemingly cursed 2 ... More >>

Is M.I.A.'s 2010 Cursed?

M.I.A.'s Saturday performance at HARD NYC did not go well. Like, kind of spectacularly not well. Her headlining set at the festival was the evening's low point, by all accounts; her sound, in particular, was a catastrophe, and this was before the heavens opened up and sent most of the crowd sprint ... More >>

Q&A: Rapper Theophilus London Gives Tips For Remaining Cool and Fashionable at HARD NYC This Weekend

Eddie Brannan​"I was at M.I.A.'s secret birthday party two days ago when Drew Barrymore walked in," says a smitten-sounding Theophilus London, the much-championed young M.C. who, contrary to his rap name, hails from Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood. "M.I.A.'s brother invited all her friends, p ... More >>

M.I.A.'s /\/\/\Y/\ Is the Ninth Most Popular Record In America Right Now

"Really, America?" Photo by Rebecca Smeyne. ​It's hard to imagine that this is anything but a disappointment for M.I.A.'s team, who got the promotional wheels rolling in full force all the way back in May, only to be derailed in June by Lynn Hirschberg and an army of increasingly angry critics ... More >>

Week in Review: What Your Kids Will Learn

Not again! Photo by Rebecca Smeyne.​In the week we mostly spent anticipating tomorrow's Siren Festival, we talked at length with headliner Ted Leo, celebrated at a pre-party with Monotonix, and looked back at nine years worth of past triumphs. See you there, hopefully?

Stream the New M.I.A. Record, /\/\/\Y/\

​And like that, you can hear the record you've been reading reviews of since May. M.I.A. is streaming her third LP at MySpace right now in advance of its release next Tuesday-- we're partial to Diplo's faux-reggae on "It Takes a Muscle," Sleigh Bells' "Meds and Feds," and the gauzy, goofy Blaq ... More >>

M.I.A. Collaborates with Nicki Minaj, Talks Jay-Z's "XXXO" Remix: "It Was Good To Hear Him Say the Word 'Metrosexual'"

Come to think of it, Nicki favors wigs too. Coincidence? Photo by Rebecca Smeyne​M.I.A.'s complicated relationship with hip-hop has always been fascinating: Kala, her last record, was hard on rap (see: the Rick Ross-immolating "Hussel," or the Timbaland judo-chop "Come Around"), but the genre ... More >>

Jay-Z Remixes M.I.A.'s "XXXO"

Download the track at Nah Right For those keeping track, this is the third time the most famous man in rap has graced an M.I.A. song, or sampled one anyway, rapping over "Paper Planes" on the posse cut "Swagger Like Us," jumping on Arulpragasam's "Boyz" back in an election year, and now blessing t ... More >>

TruffleGate: The New York Times Stands By M.I.A. Story

​Singer M.I.A.'s Sunday New York Times profile that ran four days ago stirred up quite a bit of chaos that the Times is just getting around to responding to now.

In Defense of M.I.A., Circa April 26, 2010

She released an incoherent polemic of a video featuring nudity (NSFW!) and some truly distasteful violence (child murder! landmines!). For some reason, Pitchfork handed her the keys to their Twitter feed; she's spent the day spewing out streams of "go egosurfing DRINK A SHOT OF TEQUILLA spamouflag ... More >>

New M.I.A.: "Born Free"

​Punk rock is the new high concept pop. The Fall is the new Gang of Four. Bragging about your cash flow is the new global poverty. Snare drums are the new 808s. Bass is the new guitar. Not giving a fuck is the new giving a fuck. Confessional spoken word stuttering is the new gang vocal breakdo ... More >>

M.I.A. Upstages Jay-Z During Coachella, Announces Record Release Date Via Blimp

Jay-Z will never again serenade M.I.A.'s unborn child​File under things Jay-Z probably will not forgive: during the rapper's set at Coachella on Friday, a blimp took to the skies, bearing a digital billboard teasing the release date for M.I.A.'s third LP. According to Rap-Up, after reminding t ... More >>

Why M.I.A. Thinks Lady Gaga Is Biting Her Style

Because of a Wale song called "Chillin." Listen to it (above) and realize--as Ryan Dombal pointed out more than a year ago--that M.I.A. has a pretty solid case here. The context? An interview the singer just gave to NME--which, given the fact that it's been typed out of a magazine and onto ONTD, ... More >>

Sleigh Bells Debut Will Be Called Treats, Out in May; M.I.A. Will Co-Release

Aaron Richter​Magical Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells have broken an unofficial silence to announce the name of their much-anticipated debut--Treats, which sounds about right--and the date and label on which it'll be out: New York indie Mom Pop (which also snagged Tokyo Police Club last year) and ... More >>

Diplo on the New M.I.A. Record: "It's Like Gucci Mane Meets Animal Collective"

​With the caveat that humans are perfectly capable of misdescribing things and/or are prone to making wild statements that can promise far, far, more than they can deliver, here is Diplo on M.I.A.'s theoretical new record, which he is producing: "Been in the studio with M.I.A. working on her n ... More >>

On the Very Best's "Rain Dance," Featuring M.I.A.

Last year, Malawian pop singer Esau Mwamwaya and the production duo Radioclit linked up for Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit Are the Very Best, a marvel of a mixtape that ran through versions of everything from Vampire Weekend's "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" to M.I.A.'s "Boyz." The tape reflected a deep fam ... More >>

M.I.A. Officially More Influential Than Prince, Lil Wayne, or Kanye West

Congratulations to M.I.A. for making Time's list of the 100 most influential people in 2009, two years after her last record, and three months after being nominated for her first Grammy. Spike Jonze, in his adulatory but perceptive ("She reacts to whatever's in front of her: 'Those are booming India ... More >>

M.I.A. May or May Not Be A Terrorist Apologist, Says New York Times

My lord this is a badly informed piece in the Times this morning. The lede: To many Americans, Maya Arulpragasam, known as M.I.A., is the very pregnant rapper who gyrated across the stage at Sunday's Grammy Awards. Tet in Sri Lanka, where she spent her childhood years, M.I.A. remains virtually u ... More >>

How M.I.A. (and America) Got Her Swagger Back

The menace of "Paper Planes" trumps the frivolity of "American Boy." Both are good signs.

Jay-Z's "Boyz" Remix: Every Single Good Thing in Hip-Hop This Year Is M.I.A.-Related

New Sex Jam: M.I.A. Says "Hit That," Internet Confused

Bonnaroo Day 2: Jose Gonzalez, Fiery Furnaces, Swell Season, Raconteurs, Rilo Kiley, M.I.A., Metallica

Live: M.I.A.'s Outdoor Rave

ONE MILLION CUSTOMERS SERVED

M.I.A. graces the first of many outdoor stages

How to Rob, by M.I.A.

M.I.A. triumphantly knocks the hustle that's driving hip-hop's materialist malaise

Who Truly Feels It All?

Feist overshadows the subversive sirens blaring down South

Immigrant Songs

How Rihanna and M.I.A. delivered the most profound political statements of 2007

M.I.A. and the Double Standard of MTV Censorship

Status Ain't Hood Interviews M.I.A.

Cleared for Takeoff

Visa issues resolved, M.I.A. can finally show us what she learned while in exile

On the Continuing Resonance of "Rump Shaker"

The Streetrope Invasion

Brooklyn booty brats snatch bills and invite you to suck up, eat a Big Mac, and do it now

Right, the Record

I got brown skin but I'm a West Londoner, educated but a refugee still

Burning Bright

Let's think for just a moment about how much M.I.A. actually supports the Tamil Tigers

Piracy Funds What?

Sass, radical chic, and the inevitable emanation of shanty house theory, but is that enough?