M.I.A. has always had a big impact on my life as an artist. I used to terrorize the streets of Auckland City blasting her sophomore album Kala when I was a senior in High School. What can I say? I like speed both in the streets and in the sheets ;-) But this isn’t my favorite M.I.A. album, not by a long shot.
My favorite M.I.A. album dropped over a decade ago, 2010’s Maya (stylised as M/\Y/\). This was the first album for M.I.A. to release after shooting to fame with 2008’s Paper Planes. The song was wildly successful thanks to the hit movie: Pineapple Express, starring James Franco.
I’ve always enjoyed artists that have had something interesting to say. M.I.A. is always trying to communicate something to her fans. This album was her warning to anybody who’d listen about mass surveillance.
Yes, that’s right, M.I.A. was warning her fans about the government spying well before NSA was a part of public consciousness, That’s pretty dope if you ask me. Let us all appreciate Prince William who honored her with an MBE. I see you Crown Prince.
If you want to listen to the album, I suggest listening to it on YouTube just to be ironic. Or perhaps I’m just a troll?
My favorite track is number 5. When I was living in San Mateo with my Cuban ex-boyfriend, we lived across a Mosque. I would play Lovalot at a very loud volume when we would sit on our balcony for our nightly chamomile tea. The opening lyrics to this song seem so ironically relevant to pandemic life in New York City:
They told me this is a free country
And now it feels like a chicken factory
I feel couped up I wanna bust free
Got nothing to lose if you get me
But the lyrics that I’d burst out singing, impromptu, all around the apartment I shared with my Cuban ex across from the Mosque was:
Like a Taliban trucker, eating boiled up Yucca
Yup, Mum def raised a troll.