M.I.A is infectious, in the true sense of the word. Her debut Arular is like that book you can’t put down, a mish mash of everything unconventional and ugly, with lashings of composition irresistibly original, it’s completely weird and works brilliantly. Not since Missy Elliot has hip hop had a woman that honestly doesn’t give a fuck and done her thing creatively, however bizarre, regardless of critics, producers or the likes. M.I.A, or Maya Arulpragasam, is defiantly similar, relishing the diversity and the wacky elements of her music whilst having the balls to back up her decisions and the conviction to believe in them.
When you grow up dodging bombs and fleeing civil war in Sri Lanka it’s not difficult to understand how the music industry may seem fickle to M.I.A. Maya grew up in a world that few of us could contemplate, in the years of civil war between the Tamil minority and the Buddhist Sinhalese in India, Maya’s father was a Tamil revolutionary, which eventually forced the family to flee the country. Her mother and siblings relocated to a particularly racist South London where Maya was labelled ‘The Thing’ as her surname was too long and difficult to pronounce. She somewhat stumbled into music when Elastica front woman Justine Frichmann handed down a 303 which then became the basis for Arular, an indescribable combination of everything that for convenience has been labelled hip hop.
Whilst she has definitely made waves in the UK, it was America that really took to her music and propelled her to the spotlight. “As soon as I went over to America I totally got a nod from every person I admired, I got a phone call from every producer I respect and every artist that I respect and loads of people came to my shows. In America I think they get the whole picture and they just go “okay”. In America they’re really obsessed with being a winner, if you watch TV there, whether you’re watching the god channel or advertising or Dr Phil or Oprah or their programs, films, anything it all leads to one sentiment that is ‘AND YOU’RE A WINNER’ and ‘GOD WE’RE SO PROUD’ and they all clap and stuff. “Get this whitening paste and you can be a winner too!” and “do these stomach crunches and you can be a winner too’”. I think when they heard me come up, that whole picture made it happen for me, oh look she’s lived through this and lived through that, then she did that and went to art school and now she’s here and they embraced that. In England they are more like “are you an mc?” and if you’re an mc you’re judged on how much you can diss the next person and it doesn’t go beyond that. It really is about “yeah yeah yeah, what what what” and I wasn’t trying to do that, I was more “c’mon now, I’m not going to act like I’m 18” because it just doesn’t go nowhere.”
So whilst the UK heralded 2005 as the year of the female mc, M.I.A shied away from the spotlight and it has proved more than beneficial, establishing herself as a solo artist as opposed to a phase. “The year I came out you had Shystie, you had me, you had Lady Sauve, you had Estelle, you had a couple more girls and every magazine was like ‘female grime mc’s, female grime mc’s’ and everybody did loads of articles on it. I kinda went “hmm, I’d like to be there and stuff but I’ve got this whole bunch of drama that goes on with me over here and it’s really important for me to sort that out before I start repping my neighbourhood”. Then they were like “Whoa, what are you trying to say, like who the fuck are you?” and then it’s was like well I’m fucked cos I know a little too much about life and I can’t deny it. I can’t be localised, I can’t be part of a scene or a thing like that because it just doesn’t work for me and I’ve already gone past it and I already know too much. So I think at that time I just kind of stuck to it and a lot of people were like ‘she ain’t real then, she ain’t comin from the hood’ and they just forgot about me a little bit, which was probably the best thing that happened to me because I could just quietly get on with it. Lady Sauve is about the only one that is still actually around and it’s not like England’s embraced her and made her into this amazing thing anyways, she’s having a hard time with it and I think she’s cool. I think generally it’s really hard being a female mc in Britain if your not coffee table.”
And with M.I.A it will never be coffee table, atypical is Maya’s staple when it comes to music, getting thrills from the smallest quirks in production and thinking outside the square. ”I think about it a lot and I think there’s enough in hip hop now that you can do really creative things with it and there’s this little group called Numb coming out of Oakland and I heard this track I Got Grapes and it’s so nice, it felt really nice and I heard it and I liked it and I got hooked up with the producer. I basically took him all the things and found some things that I was into, I wanted to use a hip hop producer but I wanted him to step out of what he’s doing and what he knows and come and do something with me in my world. It was really cool, he just did it and it was the first step into working with hip hop people and it’s not Timbaland or people like that cos I feel like that’s too obvious for me to go there. To make like a chequebook album, getting all the best producers. I feel that is open to me but I like the fact that I went to an unknown producer in Oakland and he tried to make me this weird thing that I liked. The act of it just made me really happy and the fact that he was really willing to step in and just explore a little bit, that’s all I can do to it. I feel that’s my only job, is step in and if I’m going to use hip hop producers is to go there and go ‘look, this is how they make music in Mongolia, fancy going there for a bit and trying something’ and for them to go ‘alright’ and just try and roll with the punches.”
Rarely do the generous journalistic claims about originality and change in music come into fruition but with M.I.A you can’t help but to believe the hype. Her album and her attitude is honest and admirable and she is touring as part of the Big Day Out.
Thu Jan 26 – Big Day Out, Sydney (SOLD OUT)
Sat Jan 28 – The Metro, Sydney (BUY TICKETS)
Sun Jan 29 – Big Day Out, Melbourne
Wed Feb 1 – Prince of Wales, Melbourne
Fri Feb 3 – Big Day Out, Adelaide
Sun Feb 5 – Big Day Out, Perth
