I've been hearing about this chick for almost a year now! She had a hit in the UK called "galang" and from what I heard it was pretty hot. I heard her music is a cross between, electro, hip hop and bhangra! Her albums drops on 2/22!

Here's a bit more about her!

M.I.A.'s debut record is both intensely urban and aggressively modern. The group's sole member, Maya Arul, infuses her blend of hip-hop and chunky electro with raw, tribal overtones and a healthy dose of sex appeal. There are elements of world music here, in Arul's multi-lingual vocal as well as the tonal shifts and instrumentation (like the drone that opens up "Hombre"). Her delivery uses a variety of yelps and tics full of street-wise confidence and bratty energy. But there's also an appealing melodic sense, like early Neneh Cherry or Miss Kitten when she's not in diva-mode. M.I.A. doesn't really sound like anybody; the music is just experimental enough to wiggle out of easy comparisons. The IDM-style bleeps and beeps of "Galang," for example, give an already catchy song extra punch. The only problem with the record, a common flaw for debuts, is a sameness from track to track which robs it of the ability to surprise. Still, Arul is hugely talented and her abundant originality packs a wallop. --Matthew Cooke

I've heard the buzz about M.I.A. a lot also. Her bootleg mix album (Piracy Funds Terrorism) made the top 30 of this year's Village Voice annual Pazz & Jop poll. I listened to a few samples on Amazon.com and she sounds very cool.

sextonseven said:

i have a feeling this girl is going to be hot! her cd is being released here first, then in the UK in april. not sure why though. she's also been compared to missy elliot and her mentor is Peaches! doesn't get much cooler than that. i can't wait to get this album!

My best friend, who is a DJ, turned me on2 her a few months ago. She's gonna be big in '05.

npgmaverick said:

I hope she's big, but not too big. Then I'll have to fight with thousands of people for concert tix.

sextonseven said:

yeah tell me about it. honestly, i have a good feeling about her and hope that we will bring in some new flavor to the music industry. it's about that time. missy elliot used to be very innovative but i was disspointed with her last 2 cds. maybe if missy hears about M.I.A. she might be inspired to make great music again.

have you ever heard of Shystie? she's another brit MC and she rocks! too bad she never got an exposure in the states.

I've been meaning to check this out. Specially since the people over at Pitchfork rated this release a 8.5



Santa Claus, the Virgin Mary, and Terrence "Turkeytime" Terrence just got the shaft this holiday season. Why bother with presents? 2005's Tickle Me Elmo was supposed to be a chicken-legged Sri Lankan with so much sex in her self-spun neons you might as well get wasted off penicillin with Willie Nelson at a secret Rex the Dog show. But guess what? On Halloween she showed up in Philadelphia for her Fader gig, sat herself under a big fucking Christmas tree, and dished out free copies of Piracy Funds Terrorism, Vol. 1, the mixtape masterpiece she and Diplo Hollertronix had spent the 10 previous days putting together in his apartment. Batteries included!

So a large portion of her forthcoming debut, Arular, has willfully gone leaky boat here. Many of her tracks sound similar to one another: A 505 Groovebox queefs out splatty, farty beats and M.I.A. shouts lyrics of varying snark over them, sometimes even singing them. (Sometimes.) She's been irresistible in single land, but M.I.A.'s full-length runs the risk of seeming limited and discrediting her misleading but awesome "female Dizzee Rascal" tag, replacing that description with "Neneh Cherry, Mk. II"-- a label that has likely dawned on anyone who has seen the "Buffalo Stance"-like "Galang" video.

That is why this mixtape kills: The format fits M.I.A. perfectly. Her songs benefit greatly from Diplo's recent baile funk fetish (confer his recent Favela On Blast tape), some choice dub and American hip-hop cuts to break up the blaze to blaze and razorblades, and some flat-out brilliant mashups.

On the upstroke, "Galang" goes reggaeton; on the down, Diplo cops the song a Lil Vicious beat and a lil keyboard hook, and it's so whoa you'll have to punch yourself in the face to stop smiling. "Fire Fire" goes bam bam then walks like an Egyptian in a telling Bangles mashup-- the two songs play so nicely together they could be siamese, until Diplo misdemeans "Pass That Dutch" with M.I.A.'s snakey music box schwarma. M.I.A.'s "Amazon" coupled with Ciara's radio-friendly microcrunk squelch is an early highlight, though that squirmy synth on Clipse's "Definition of a Roller" makes for good freak, too, packing just enough snaggletooth funk to forgive those recent Neptunes missteps.

For a tape whose initial appeal was the instant and gratifying relief it brought to everyone waiting for M.I.A.'s full-length, Diplo ironically saves M.I.A.'s best cuts for last. "URAQT" is a jittery mess of flirting, territory-marking, and text-messaging (!): "You fuckin with my man and you text him all the time/ You mighta had him once but I have him all the time," and later, "U-R-A-Q-T/ Is your daddy dealer, cause you're dope to me!" For dessert, Diplo brings "Big Pimpin'" out of retirement to back M.I.A.'s raspy "Bingo": "Do you know what is on? Do you know what is on? Do you know how this beat is made in fucking Lon-d-d-don?" The song's obviously great, but between M.I.A.'s fierce deliveries and the braggart beat, it sounds weird and ominous, a black-hole closer to an album brimming with life.

Last week, Sasha Frere-Jones profiled M.I.A. in The New Yorker, spraypainting her as a consummate and naturally "world" artist. M.I.A. is silly, dancey, cheap, expensive, truthful, and utterly serious all at once-- just like the world (!). She's not exactly rags-to-riches (yet), but her pop carries unwittingly significant weight, and to potentially far more people than just a few hundred ecstatic MP3 blog readers. It's one thing for M.I.A. to be a "world" pop star; it will be another thing for her to release an album that reflects that backstory. For now, Piracy Funds Terrorism, Vol. 1 takes that burden off of Arular: Diplo has actualized our hopes for M.I.A. qua world pop star, and we didn't even have to leave him cookies.

sinisterpentatonic said:

wow, that's impressive because pitchfork never gives anyone a good review. by the way, you can listen to samples of her album "Arular" on amazon. it sounds hot!!

Since they made comparisons to Neneh Cherry, I listened to the samples on amazon.com. That is as far as my M.I.A. exposure will go. Wasn't for me. Y'all seriously think she's gonna be big?

RipHer2Shreds said:

i don't think she sounds like neneh cherry. from what i've heard she sounds a bit more like another uk artists called shystie, mixed with a little missy elliot. i do think she will be big but maybe not in the states.

dancerella said:

Definitely not in the states. Her sound is too out there for U.S. radio.

sextonseven said:

i know and that is a real shame. people should be more open minded, epsecially considering ashlee simpson went 3 times platinum.