To call M.I.A. a political artist is to underplay things a little. Equally 2010's Born Free is less a protest song, more an insurrection, built around clamorous beat, a distorted two note Suicide sample and Maya's chanted vocal.
Born Free
The video that accompanied it was a nine minute film depicting the genocide of red haired people, widely seen as standing in for the treatment of Tamil men in Sri Lanka. It's here. But you'll want to see this too, live on the Late Show with David Letterman, a revolutionary vanguard of M.I.A.s, backing singers in burqas and Martin Rev from Suicide beating up the keyboard. That's how you do TV performance.
6 comments:
Keep 'em coming SA
Now that is a splendid racket.
"That's how you do TV performance."
You are absolutely right there.
Woah! Some of the best TV performances I've ever seen have been on Letterman. This is right up there.
M.I.A. has already released one of my go to songs for 2017 in P.O.W.A. You are right SA, to call Maya political is to paint her with a very narrow brush. I would substitute the word "aware." It uses the properly broad brush allowing her to be seen as an artist and a social thinker.
Stunning
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