M.I.A. /\/\/\Y/\ / M.I.A. Haters

M.I.A.'s new album is released this week. Not that I was ever really into her or anything, but feeling I'm pretty over her right now.

Her "feud" with Lady Gaga is highly ironic, as they are both much more interested in imagery and creating a PR storm than they are with writing a great song. It's also pretty one-sided as I have never heard anything from camp Gaga about M.I.A. - unless you count this. And I'd heard about this supposedly damning article on her in the NY Times for a while before I finally got around to reading it. And you know what? It's not THAT bad. There may be some out of context quotes and some possible set-ups (truffle fries?) but it still points out some glaringly obvious contradictions between M.I.A.'s life and work. Oh, and that 'controversial" gingerphobia video? Zzzzzz. Funny how it reminded me of the hollow shockgasm of Justice's "Stress" before I knew it was by the same director.

So here she is on the Letterman Show from the top of the week, performing "Born Free" with an army of clones. The best thing about this is that they've actually hired Martin Rev of Suicide to recreate the sample from his track that the tune is based on.



It seems the tide of public opinion may be turning against her, certainly hipster opinion, if the comments on this post on the dubiously-named Brooklyn Vegan blog are anything to go by. Still, we're not here to hate. She's better than most of the shit music that's out there, but then again so is the sound of silence. Brooklyn Vegan also links to a response track M.I.A. made about the journalist Lynn Hirschberg who wrote that NY Times piece. Judge her talent for yourself. It's called "Haters". Oh the irony.