For a second there, I thought "now what has Gwen Stefani done to herself?!"

M.I.A meh...

she should sell it in Toronto, don't want that gangsta posturing crap infecting Tamil youth here in the US. Why can't she just sport a Che t-shirt like the hipsters in her target demographic instead of trying to elevate her bump & grind music with politics?

HA!

Oh, I was "ha"-ing at Zen's comment, not Louiecypher's. Woops. :)

Most of the Sri Lankan Tamils I know are doctors at Yale.
Her--uhhhh--whatever....Not Our Class, Dearie!!

wow in my own backyard. i'll have to check this out.

several random thoughts:

1.I've watched the 'making of the video' for Boyz thats on youtube far too many times.

2. That outfit makes me think of deee-lite. I love deee-lite (groove is indeed in the heart).

3. free 'MIA bandanas'?

4. She has very skinny arms, I'd never be able to borrow her sari hatta

I'm excited to be in the East Bay just in time for this ;)

deee-lite!!!

M.I.A. may not be exactly like the lead girl - didn't she wear a fur coat and daisy dukes in the video? I may not be remembering correctly...

Why can't we have a brown Feist or PJ Harvey?

M.I.A, double meh...

Why can't we have a brown Feist or PJ Harvey?

I just suffered two dry retches in rapid succesion.

I just suffered two dry retches in rapid succesion.

You should eat more thambi. What's the point of retching without giving everyone a physical manifestation of your disgust ?

Why can't we have a brown Feist

Done. She's called Norah Jones.

or PJ Harvey?

M.I.A. rocks just as hard. And with less self pity, too!

Why can't we have a brown Feist Done. She's called Norah Jones.

Norah Jones doesn't have any desi reference points, her dad was not a significant part of her life and she said as much. She's more Frito pie than papri chaat. This is not a dig at her, she's really talented. Talk of djinn/ghosts in Pakistan seem to have impacted Ms. Khan's visual style per own admission and the spectral BMX muppets in the vid

Freddie Mercury had indian connections, just got to look at his mouchee!! ; - p

best front man for any band!!

louiecypher, what exactly do you mean by a brown pj harvey or feist? a similar aesthetic? an indian or pakistani derived aesthetic? or some sort of bizarre hybrid? I agree that Norah Jones doesn't sufficiently fill that role, but I don't see why Khan doesn't. She has desi reference points and she has a similar aesthetic. besides, the connection between PJ Harvey & Feist's music has to their respective nationalities is tenuous at best.

Freddie Mercury had indian connections, just got to look at his mouchee!! ; - p

best front man for any band!!

He was in the closet about being a Parsi/Irani...apparently being outed as a desi back then would have been more damaging to his career than being outed as a bisexual

What is the criteria for this “role” you all speak of??

but I don't see why Khan doesn't. She has desi reference points and she has a similar aesthetic. besides, the connection between PJ Harvey & Feist's music has to their respective nationalities is tenuous at best

Venkat- We're in a agreement, I say that Khan's childhood experiences in Pakistan do impact her style

so when Norah Jones sings about heart ache, how do you know it has nothing to do with her father?

so when Norah Jones sings about heart ache, how do you know it has nothing to do with her father?

if she doesn't say so, how can we?

"if she doesn't say so, how can we?"

we can't. does not mean he had no impact.

I love me some M.I.A. I the folks at work asking can you understand what she is saying, I tell them yes I do. Fire fire is one of my favorite joints from her. "water falls straight into the ocean"

I nominate louiecypher to be the brown PJ Feist.

p.s. What was up with the stupid Rickshaw Stop website when tickets for MIA's Saturday night show went on sale? Did anybody get tickets or was the whole thing a farce?

can someone clue me in on the LTTE stuff.. I know she has tigers and all that, but I have never seen anything in her lyrics that is for violence or against Sinhalese or anything else.. I mean, her dad was a.. err.. fighter (is that the right word?) but does that mean see is? I mean... if I grew up around something, I might take some of the imagery from it, and put my own spin into it.. hmm I don't know... so, somebody, let me know if I am missing something.

so when Norah Jones sings about heart ache, how do you know it has nothing to do with her father?

if she doesn't say so, how can we?

I have never seen anything in her lyrics that is for violence

I think MIA is incredibly talented--beats, rhymes, slang and all. Her lyrics are militant, but not quite the same as endorsing violence. They are songs of rebellion (well, most of them). My favorite bit is this, from "Sunshowers," where she takes on anti-Muslim racism:

Semi-9 and snipered him
On that wall they posted him
They cornered him
And then just murdered him

He Told them he didn't know them
He wasn't there, they didn't know him
They showed him a picture then ;
"Ain't that you with the Muslims?"

He got Colgate on his teeth
And Reebok classics on his feet
At a factory he does Nike
And then he helps the family

Beat heart Beat
He's made it to the newsweek
Sweetheart Seen it
He's doing it for the Peeps... Peace

Regarding her support for the LTTE, well, her songs give you the answer. Because she says, for instance, "I've got the bombs to make you blow" ("Pull up the People"), there are "Crump clowns got me rootin for the linos." Perhaps she is sympathetic to the Tamil resistance to Sinhala chauvinism. That's laudable, I would argue. But that isn't the same thing as supporting the LTTE.

She also sings about women's oppression, prostitution, and so on. Songs like "Hombre" are just so visceral that they are hard to listen to too often, especially for anti-sexist men.

Anyway.... I really like her music. Makes me wish I were living on the west coast. Hope she's coming to the NY/NJ area too.

I will stick to the Doors and Zep, thank you

The LTTE must be destroyed...

harbeer-i think the show sold out really quickly and the site was backlogged. If you want to check out MIA (outside of the confines of Amoeba) she is playing at the treasure island music festival in september. heres the link: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/208422/

Not saying that her songs are that simplistic, but I do think it's important to respect an artists' wishes, especially when it comes to his/her personal life.

I agree with you on this principle. That's why I said what I said in response to the other person, who as you remember said this:

so when Norah Jones sings about heart ache, how do you know it has nothing to do with her father?

She does talk about her father in the way you described*, but does not admit to pain (we can infer it perhaps, but she is not actually going around crying about it, so all we can do is infer). Furthermore as you say, her songs deal with lover-love relationships, so we can't really go reading pain over her father into them. So, respecting her wishes to keep her father out of it when we consider her art, how can we start making statements like the one I responded to?

*except perhaps for this: I don't know if she has actually said she wants nothing to do with him. After all, she does visit India and stay with him there and hang out with her sister.

I will stick to the Doors and Zep, thank you

I'll stick to Wiley and Asian Dub Foundation.

ClearChannel must be destroyed.

Why can't she just sport a Che t-shirt like the hipsters in her target demographic instead of trying to elevate her bump & grind music with politics?

No revolution is sufficiently sexy if it's not danceable. That's the problem with crooners on a stool--may blow your mind with their coffee-generated lyrics but it won't inspire you to gyrate your bum over to the voting booth or perhaps the library.

Leftyprof, you're wrong about this one. MIA's first album pretty unequivocally supported the LTTE and the efforts of her father. While she tried to muddy the waters by sprinkling her lyrics with some references to anti-muslim violence, her use of LTTE imagery coupled with things she said in her interviews ("Terrorism is just a method") made it pretty clear what her priors were and what she was trying to do. If you're really anti-muslim violence and sympathetic to the plight sri lankan tamils, there's more productive and responsible ways to document their plight then defend a group like the LTTE that has discriminated against Tamil Muslims in the past.

That said, she seems to have moved on.

You should eat more thambi. What's the point of retching without giving everyone a physical manifestation of your disgust ?

well, as is usual in most conversations about music (SM seems to have a better track-record than pop media in general on this), the singers/performers are lauded and the producers go on the their merry anonymous way.

I was hoping for brown producers coming up(nothing against Natasha, I agree that her voice is sufficient to mandate at least one listen), but you rarely catch beat-makers until they land a commercial/major-label inclusion.

Where's the brown Jay Dilla, High Contrast or Mizz Beatz?

Or Diplo?

Venkat:

MIA's first album pretty unequivocally supported the LTTE and the efforts of her father.

I'm not sure which album you are referring to here, as I haven't come across such "unequivocal" lyrics in the one album that I've heard. Could you provide some examples?

While she tried to muddy the waters by sprinkling her lyrics with some references to anti-muslim violence, her use of LTTE imagery coupled with things she said in her interviews ("Terrorism is just a method") made it pretty clear what her priors were and what she was trying to do.

Well, that's a convenient way of characterizing those portions of her lyrics that don't sit well with your claims. You decide, based on your ideology, what is integral to her ideas and what is simply an means of "muddying the waters." Yes, there is Tiger imagery in her artwork, and I suppose in a couple of her videos, but I fail to see any explicit LTTE imagery in the songs themselves. The quote "terrorism is just a method" is hardly the ringing endorsement of the LTTE that you make it out to be. (Of course terrorism is just a method! What else is it?)

If you're really anti-muslim violence and sympathetic to the plight sri lankan tamils, there's more productive and responsible ways to document their plight then defend a group like the LTTE that has discriminated against Tamil Muslims in the past.

Again, I'd like to see something in her lyrics that proves your claims that she does indeed defend the LTTE. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not issuing this as a challenge--I am genuinely interested in trying to find out why she's been accused of supporting the Tigers, because I don't see it. (And I'm not sure what you mean about the LTTE's discrimination against Tamil muslims, but that's a different topic, I suppose.)

The way I see it, supporting resistance, even guerilla struggles, against oppression doesn't necessarily put one in the camp of this or that group, and isn't in and of itself a sufficient reason to indict an artist. Secondly, I am not sure whether Sri Lankan Tamils have a monolithic view of the Tigers; most accounts by progressives that I've read display a sort of tortured (pardon the choice of word!) ambivalence towards them. I can understand this ambivalence, and perhaps one might say that people like MIA are attracted by the LTTE's militancy--does this amount to an endorsement of their organizational methods and tactics? I'm not so sure.

Murali:

I'll stick to Wiley and Asian Dub Foundation.

ClearChannel must be destroyed.

Word. ADF are, I think, by far the best desi-inflected band I've ever heard. Talk about mixing art and politics with panache--they are without equal, in my opinion.

but they've fallen off hard since deedar left

Long live JOI. Too bad the older Shamsher brother died a few years ago.

LeftyProf- I second that, I want to see some evidence too. I pretty much know M.I.A.'s album, as well as seen her live. I know a lot of her lyrics seem to use satire to highlight certain issues (like Hombre) and other lyrics I always interpreted as being against violence.. like the bit about violence against Muslims, or for example in Pull up the People:

Every gun in a battle is a
Son and daughter too

I always read her lyrics as revolutionary (sort of, as well as revolutionary flavor for flare) in a politically left social sense, a lot of her imagery is about violence in the hood, but seems to be to make a point, to make people think about the world and how people are interacting. The violence she bringing up often seems to be more about her combating violence with music, her fighter seems to play out musically, with words:

I've got the bombs to make you blow
I got the beats to make it bang

I agree completely about ADF, they continue to bring goosebumps to my arms

Re: #40, 36:

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20060810_11

zep and the doors, its 2007
hipsters in che t-shirts, posers
brown j dilla, an awesome thought
norah jones, who still listens to that
m.i.a.'s new albums real good, i got to listen to it and her cover of Jimmy Aaja from Disco Dancer is amazing

also, on brown j dilla, madlib's got the "Beat Konducta in India: Vol. 3-4" coming out. you could find a streaming video preview on dailymotion or something. sounds really good. madlib and dilla are the only dudes who utilize indian samples properly

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20060810_11

no-one here has expressed the opinion that the LTTE hasn't fucked over Muslims not just in Muttur but also other parts of the north-east, at different times over the past 24 years.

what i don't gather from that article (sourced as it is from Al-Jazeera--not the most objective new source in the world when it comes to stories about oppression of Muslims by non-Muslims), is how any of it would help either side of this, "MIA: does she tacitly support LTTE actions or not" debate.

but they've fallen off hard since deedar left

let's be clear, they never looked at themselves as a band. They were more enamored of the idea that what they did constituted community activism, and that they were teachers for a new generation. This is partly why there's been a revolving door at the vocals/rapping position since Deedar left and why they plugged the holes at bass guitar and percussion, once Dr. Das and Rocky left.

Spex and Aktavarta don't do dancehall-style sing-jaying as well as Deedar, but they it seems as if they're making an honest effort to complement the flow of the songs and not hijack it with Talib Kweli-style, off-kilter verbal diarrhea.

on the new compilation, there are about 4-5 new tracks worth listening to, even the Chuck D collabos (not sterling but entertaining anyways).

Rob:

Re: #40, 36:

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20060810_11

What does this have to do with anything? Since when did the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense, Public Security and Law and Order (all under the same ministry, but that's a different issue!) become arbiters of musical taste?

“So, respecting her wishes to keep her father out of it when we consider her art, how can we start making statements like the one I responded to?”

we can’t, point is it does not matter what the song means to her, I can listen to it, make my own interpretations on it. Now much of the Beatles work on “revolver” is desi influenced. Do they fit the role??

Woody Guthrie’s song “this land is your land” could be a desi anthem at the moment?

murali@46

alright, but i dont think the music that their collective makes has been nearly as good since after community music, but ill check out the new compilation...i dont dislike the new guys, it's just lost deedar's edge and that's what made adf special for me

oh im #38 too, for more clarity :-)

Well, that's a convenient way of characterizing those portions of her lyrics that don't sit well with your claims. You decide, based on your ideology, what is integral to her ideas and what is simply an means of "muddying the waters." Yes, there is Tiger imagery in her artwork, and I suppose in a couple of her videos, but I fail to see any explicit LTTE imagery in the songs themselves. The quote "terrorism is just a method" is hardly the ringing endorsement of the LTTE that you make it out to be. (Of course terrorism is just a method! What else is it?)

LeftyProf: The tiger is not some Tamil totem (it does have some significance as the symbol of the Chola dynasty, but that's a stretch), it is specifically about the LTTE. If she wanted something powerful symbolizing Tamil identity & resistance she could have picked the "vel" or a rampant, ready to pounce Rajnikanth. And what, in this visual day & age imagery used in vids don't signify as much as lyrics? I believe her academic training is in the visual arts. I know you're Marxist but come on, you must be expending quite a bit of energy maintaining this ambivalence for a group that operates more like fascists. Just admit that you like to rock out to her when you are grading freshman intro class papers on Marxist interpretations of Dr. Seuss and don't give her politics much thought

I don't care for her music or politics. Here's a UK Sri Lankan's take on the subject.
Link 1
Link 2
Link3
Link4

I know you're Marxist but come on, you must be expending quite a bit of energy maintaining this ambivalence for a group that operates more like fascists.

Oh, believe me, I am not at all ambivalent about the LTTE as it exists today, and this precisely because of my Marxism. Although I'm not sure the fascism analogy works, there is nothing in the way the LTTE operates that is even remotely worthy of support, in my opinion. That isn't the issue here, though, is it? I was responding to the reductionist way in which some folks equate MIA's support for Tamil resistance with support for the LTTE, and now I have to face the same charges!?!!

You are right when you say that the tiger imagery derives from the Tigers (capital T); but I would imagine that the imagery has a broader appeal in Sri Lankan Tamil culture, as part of the iconography of resistance that has developed, particularly among the youth who have grown up in the context of civil war. I doubt that Rajnikanth could effectively serve that purpose.

I see this as similar to Palestinian youth who might wave the Hamas flag as a symbol of resistance, although they themselves might be thoroughly secular. (Of course, the analogy ends there, for I think that Hamas and Hezbollah have far better politics than the LTTE. The latter have become nothing but a bunch of thugs with heavy artillery.)

Just admit that you like to rock out to her when you are grading freshman intro class papers on Marxist interpretations of Dr. Seuss and don't give her politics much thought

There's something so obnoxiously belittling about this ad hominem remark, but I'll let it pass.

but I would imagine that the imagery has a broader appeal in Sri Lankan Tamil culture, as part of the iconography of resistance that has developed, particularly among the youth who have grown up in the context of civil war. I doubt that Rajnikanth could effectively serve that purpose.

Um....Rajnikanth was a joke, as a Tamil I can tell you the "vel" is a powerful symbol of Muruga (our patron God, often associated with Skanda the vedic god of war). Go to London, see the fear that Tamil kids have for each other and ask yourself if this symbol is about a larger political struggle or about petty, street corner territoriality. I see the devolution of the African-American resistance movement into the Bloods & Cripps, I don't want it for my people

There's something so obnoxiously belittling about this ad hominem remark, but I'll let it pass.

I am indeed beneath contempt, history is on your side

Just admit that you like to rock out to her when you are grading freshman intro class papers on Marxist interpretations of Dr. Seuss and don't give her politics much though

Ad hominem? Most likely yes. If you were teaching lit. theory he probably would've made a crack about body-piercing or pornography but that's another issue.

another spin on this is that the described approach is perfectly benign. I listen to music primarily for production and the instruments played--IMHO, traditional rockist critiques that confine their analysis to gender, race and politics are completely irrelevant to many people who enjoy music for what it is--a primal command to dance!

Muralimannered:

Ad hominem? Most likely yes

It wasn't intended as such. Having never interacted with a Marxist in an academic environment (I did have a grand uncle who was a dedicated red) and not having had the benefit of an arts education, I assumed that the best way to introduce Marxist critical theory would be through Seuss. Introductory physics starts out with idealizations like point mass and conservative systems, intro economics starts with markets consisting entirely of guns & butter. Seuss in the Sneetches offers a simplified society in which star bellied elites control all means of production and there are no other sources of discontent (e.g. loss of soul or meaning)...in short an optimal environment for novice marxists

oh dear, I fear that monsieur Louiecypher has a rather refined sense of humor.

I do wish i brushed up on my Seuss before commenting--oh well, I guess God Is Not Great and Perdido Street Station will have to wait.

Too bad the US led this terrorist-supporting hick into the country. Hope the prior visa denials taught her something though.

On a more musical note, here's something else that fits under the category of "desi lady rappers from the UK":

Hard Kaur http://www.hardkaur.co.uk/

Her videos & lyrics are as far off from MIA as possible:
Glassy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL2sFRxp8ZY
Sexy Boy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idAqhkmzGrU

Wonder whether ADF & MIA are more representative of desi hip-hop/pop than someone like Hard Kaur & Apache Indian?

we can’t, point is it does not matter what the song means to her, I can listen to it, make my own interpretations on it. Now much of the Beatles work on “revolver” is desi influenced. Do they fit the role??

Woody Guthrie’s song “this land is your land” could be a desi anthem at the moment?

Hard Kaur makes me giggle (in a good way), although my roommate thinks she's a horrible example for women, Punjabis, and rappers. =/ I like her stanza on "Party in Bombay" (Mentor Kolektiv). Actually, I am just totally swayed by her opening with "kiddahn!"

Is that picture of her from Gurinder Chadha's boldly inventive new film "Desperately Seeking Suseela?"