The greatest compliment you could pay to M.I.A. is that, even after a career spanning a decade, her music still doesn’t sound like anyone else’s.
The British Sri Lankan rapper is an unruly, provocative artist – whose frequent escapades often have tongues wagging – but also has a spiritual side to her.
Proof of this can be found in her latest album, entitled “Matangi”, in homage to the Hindu goddess of speech and music, whose mantra is AIM, or MIA back to front. The bad girl produces a carefree mixture of genres: fun mixed with religious and political activism, expressions of joy punctuated by more sombre atmospheres and inspirations from both the East and the West. Her hip hop rings out like an explosion of colours, light, warmth and influences.
“Live fast, die young, bad girls do it well”: M.I.A. nails her colours to the mast, …and we enjoy!
[Paléo 2014]