TOPSHOP JACKE T, TOPSHOP. COM; RICHIE RICH BATHING SUIT TOP, RICHIERICHGLOBAL.COM; OAKLE Y SUNGLASSES, OAKLEY.COM; ERICKSON BEAMON EARRINGS, ERICKSONBEAMON.COM.

“Still, I know I’ll catch flak,” she says, a slight exasperation in her voice, as if she’s already analyzed the subject a billion times over. “But I think I would’ve been screwed either way. I kept dating guys who were broke, who came from the streets, or from backgrounds like mine, but they didn’t necessarily treat me any better. My fiancé is really a great guy.”

For a girl who recently finished a tour dubbed “People vs. Money,” familial ties with the Bronfmans may appear hypocritical, but as M.I.A. says, “What can you do? I fell in love. It is what it is.” In retrospect, the lyrics to Kala’s “Bird Flu” seem prescient: “Streets are making ’em hard / So they selfish little roamers / Jumpin’ girl to girl / Make us meat like burgers / When I get fat / I’ll pop me out some leaders.” Is it another case of a bird—or at least a bird-themed song—predicting M.I.A.’s fate? She laughs at the suggestion that she knew any of this was coming, though she will say that her late maternal grandmother was an avid drinker of Martell cognac (a Seagram’s product) and believes that, through

heavenly intervention, Gran brought her and Brewer together. “She was, after
all, Seagram’s number-one customer,” says M.I.A. proudly.

Eccentrics, militants, farmers, and intellectuals—all are represented in M.I.A.’s DNA. She likes to tell tales of growing up in Sri Lanka between her mother’s creative family and father’s pragmatic clan. Their influence is not only reflected in M.I.A.’s art and music, but in her conversation as well. She can talk about the state of the union one minute, then why couture clothing is so boring the next. Then address Wall Street greed and water birthing. She uses terms like “intellectual currency,” then refers to change as a “chuggy thing.” But when the subject of music comes up, she stops to ask, “Where the fuck has all the rebellion gone?” then pauses, as if waiting for an answer to materialize on the mixing board in front of her. “Music is still reliant on the same shit: sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll. They don’t use it as a tool to stick their finger up at the rest of the world. It’s like, ‘ Yeah, I got a shorty coming up to me, and we’re about to have

GET MORE SEE BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FROM OUR COVER SHOO T A T SPIN.COM/ MIA-VIDEO