Released in August 2007, Kala was ironically less immediate, and more complex, than her indie debut. She took chances with down-tempo tunes (clearly, the risk that was “Paper Planes”—a track that samples the Clash’s “Straight to Hell”—paid off), warped production techniques (on “Mango Pickle Down River,” she lays the lopsided raps of kids over a bass line that sounds like a didgeridoo channeled through blown speakers), and incredibly dense assaults like “Bird Flu” (a blood-pumping anthem or sonic aneurysm, depending on who’s listening). It’s no wonder it took more than a year for people to really get Kala. “I made some mistakes on this album,” says M.I.A., whose dark brown, wavy hair has grown out since the publicity campaign that saw her bleach, bob, and even straighten it. “I got locked out of America, so I said I’m not gonna deal with American shit. I kind of wanted to be an outsider, and that was the problem. Some people thought that I was (a) mad and talking gibberish, or (b) I was arrogant.” M.I.A. recalls one incident in an Apple store: “I used to have this M.I.A. sticker on my computer, and this guy who worked there said, ‘Oh, do you like her?’ and I said, ‘She’s all right.’ And then he said, ‘ The first album was so much better—at least you could dance to it. But the second album—I just don’t get it.’ The people I was with were like, ‘ You want me to punch him in the face for you?’ But I did kinda miss it on both ends. Maybe it wasn’t dancey enough to be mindless, and then maybe I didn’t make the point enough to be cerebral.”
M.I.A. is never truly convinced she’s hit the spot, achieved the goal, or struck that perfect, imperfect balance. Her search for inspiration has found her mining Baltimore’s club scene for talent, recording the vocals of aboriginal kids, and dancing in the streets of Caribbean ghettos. Just take a look at her official and nonofficial videos, which are all over You Tube: M.I.A. cutting the dirt with locals in Angola, beating clothes on river rocks with girls in the jungles of India, and hitching a ride in a roach coach through decaying East New York. But not everyone’s pleased with her unique global perspective. A rapper of Sri Lankan descent who goes by the name DeLon made his own video based on “Paper Planes,” on which he raps, “M.I.A., you represent terrorism in the worst way,” over graphic shots of violence purportedly linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers. Despite reports, M.I.A. says that her father was not a Tamil Tiger, though she has mentioned the word “tiger” in songs and dropped the animal’s image in her artwork. “You know what the tiger represents?” raps DeLon. “The death of the innocent.”
Over the past year, intense online flaming—even death threats—have been a harsh reality for M.I.A. But she says that countering the spread of misinformation is one of the reasons she’s decided to continue making records. “I get called a terrorist every day,” says M.I.A., who claims that a tiger graphic on her website, or even a pair of tiger-striped sneakers she wears in a photo shoot, can set the vitriolic blogs in motion. “These people try to link me to the Tamil Tigers, then link them to Al Qaeda, which is ridiculous. It sounds small, but I’m pretty sure DeLon has made it so I can never go to Sri Lanka again. And if I can be called a terrorist just for saying what I say, I feel for the people in Sri Lanka who don’t have a name or a lawyer or who aren’t a
Her dad, now a writer, is aware of the threats against his daughter. M.I.A. says that she and her father are in contact but her relationship with her him is complicated—they don’t speak much and rarely see one another. “I think he feels sorry for me, that I’m now catching flak, especially since he’s had no associations with politics in Sri Lanka since the 1990s,” she says.
“Last time I saw him, he was coming to MIT in Cambridge to teach sustainable, global development.” M.I.A. pauses as if, for the first time during the conversation, she’s at a loss for words. She plays with the pop top of her soda can, then continues, “My dad is a really weird and amazing guy. He’ll invent things: ‘Here’s the cow,
Her trajectory from immigrant London to America’s pop charts clearly does not mirror that of a despot ruler, but it is an impressive leap from disenfranchisement to dominance. M.I.A.’s success has been less about assimilation than it has been about following her instincts, and her latest project is no exception. M.I.A.’s staunchly against having her baby in a hospital “all tied up to tubes and wires” and, of course, has her own ideas on how it should be done.
BETSEY JOHNSON DRESS, BE TSE YJOHNSON. COM; MOSS LIPOW SUNGLASSES, MOSSLIPOW.COM; BESS EARRINGS, BESS-NYC.COM.
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