It seems like forever-ago M.I.A’s hit “Paper Plans” was blasting on the radio, in clubs, and at parties. The sounds of gunshots and cash registers cha-chinging made the chorus one that called for hand motions as listeners everywhere would act out the sounds. Three years have gone by since the release of M.I.A’s album “Kala,” and this summer fans will get another taste of M.I.A’s distinct hip-hop electric sound when she releases her third album.
The album has yet to be named and is set for a June-July release. Diplo, a Philadelphia based producer, helped with the production of “Kala” and is also producing this album. Diplo said the music on the new album is a mix between rapper Gucci Mane and the indie rock group, Animal Collective.
The album also features collaborations with Baltimore based DJ and rapper, Blaqstarr, who was a co-writer for ” The Turn” and “World Town” from M.I.A’s last album. M.I.A also told the Rolling Stone earlier this year that one song on the album features the voices of Filipino workers for Verizon tech support that she met on the phone.
Since the release of “Kala” in 2007, the singer, 34, has been nominated for two Grammy’s in 2009 and last February gave birth to her first child, Ikhyd, with fiancé Benjamin Bronfman, the lead singer of indie rock group The Exit. M.I.A will be performing in Los Angeles and New York this summer before heading abroad to take part in festivals in England. Norway, and Belgium.
If you cannot wait two months to get a taste of the new album, have no fear. Last week the music video for “Born Free,” which the singer hopes will be her next hit single on the record, hit the internet.
Directed by Romain Gavras, the video has already created controversy as the images are violent and include nudity. The “Born Free” video is more of a short film that serves as a catalyst for exposing the terrors of war. M.I.A is originally from Sri Lanka, and she and her family were victims of the Sri Lankan Civil War that lasted more than 25 years and just ended last May.
The video is rumored to be a representation of the oppression from the Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a militant group fighting for independence. The war, Asia’s longest, resulted in the death of more than 80,000 Sri Lankans.
Instead of innocent Sri Lankans being killed by their own people, the video has U.S military capturing and gruesomely murdering red heads.
The video is very serious and follows M.IA’s use of political messages in her music. The artist is an advocate for Third World democracy and believes Third World countries deserve free speech like everyone else.
While the lyrics are thought provoking and somber, the music combines hip-hop and techno to make a truly cutting-edge sound that is uplifting.
“Kala” is going to be a hard album to follow, but M.I.A is an innovator of music and will definitely give fans the modern techno sound they love.
