Some critics have discussed M.I.A.’s background, but very few of them have addressed the contradictions she seems to embody. The closest anyone has come was Robert Christgau writing in the Village Voice:
Sinhalese depredations have been atrocious. But my reading suggests that more Sri Lankan Tamils want equality than want Eelam, and from this distance I'm not pro-LTTE. Hence I strongly advise fellow journalists to refrain from applying "freedom fighter" and other cheap honorifics to M.I.A.'s dad. But I also advise them to avoid the cheaper tack taken in last week's Voice by Simon Reynolds: "Don't let M.I.A.'s brown skin throw you off: She's got no more real connection with the favela funksters than Prince Harry." Not just because brown skin is always real, but because M.I.A.'s documentable experience connects her to world poverty in a way few Western whites can grasp. Moreover, beyond a link now apparently deleted from her website to a dubious Tamil tsunami relief organization, I see no sign that she supports the Tigers. She obsesses on them; she thinks they get a raw deal. But without question she knows they do bad things and struggles with that. The decoratively arrayed, pastel-washed tigers, soldiers, guns, armored vehicles, and fleeing civilians that bedeck her album are images, not propaganda - the same stuff that got her nominated for an Alternative Turner Prize in 2001. They're now assumed to be incendiary because, unlike art buyers, rock and roll fans are assumed to be stupid.M.I.A. has no consistent political program and it's foolish to expect one of her. Instead she feels the honorable compulsion to make art out of her contradictions. The obscure particulars of those contradictions compel anyone moved by her music to give them some thought, if only for an ignorant moment - to recognize and somehow account for them. In these perilous, escapist days, that alone is quite a lot.
I respect Robert Christgau, and much of what he writes above is dead on the money. But I feel he gives M.I.A. too much leeway. By minimizing the symbolic freight carried by pastel tigers and burning palms, he trivializes both M.I.A.'s art and experiences and the real world events those stenciled images refer to. Moreover, by simultaneously assuming that M.I.A. is fully in charge of how these symbols are deployed, and arguing that these pastels (and the rest of Arular) show that she is undoubtedly deeply conflicted about South Asia's history of violence, he gets to have it both ways.
Article comments
1 - Lonely Canuck
Just saying, I got a chance to interview her - you can listen to it here
2 - Michelle
I think there's an area that a lot of people are missing with M.I.A. and that is: humor. I feel like a lot of what she says is tongue-in-cheek. If you look at it that way, it takes on a whole new meaning. Maybe that's just my take, but when you take a song like Sunshowers and think about how U.R.A.Q.T. is on the same record, you have to wonder how "serious" this is all supposed to be. I feel like there may be an element of spoofing gangsta rap. Something to think about.
3 - Antonia
Interesting article. I'm glad someone had the guts to put this out there. It's what I've felt all along about the content of her music. Yea, it sounds good... "catchy"... but really, the content is vile. It's worse than vile. And you're right... fans are stupid. And that's why, despite the world scene and how WRONG her music is especially in light of it... she still succeeds. It's disgusting.
4 - Antonia
I just noticed that article was forever ago.
LoL... ah well... point is it all still applies... doesn't it.
5 - Christopher Rose
Acton isn't a council estate, it is a borough of London.
6 - Trust --/--- (this is a cross if you look sideways)
Okay so first of all, "Antonia", her music isn't so "vile" compared to other artists like Ke$ha, Rihannah, Beyonce, Lady Gaga and tons of rappers. If you listen to some of her songs she is venting her feelings and things that she has seen that have possibly scarred people and herself. And these vile things are things some of us Americans don't know about. Most of us don't know about how brutal people are and how twisted situations are outside of America. She is educating us through her music. And at least she says things in her songs to teach us while other stars talk about sex and drinking in their songs and how much they love it. And no one should hate her because she rocks. She is strong and brave for wanting to let people know about things. And your hateful comments hurt me because I am certainly not stupid. And if you think I am, your wrong because you don't even know me. But how you feel about your music is your opinion. But I think you should take a little time to compare her music values to current music. And look up some articles about her. Like she is striving to change how Tamil people are treated. And her trip to Africa to learn the African's everyday life.
Also don't be to cruel if you would like to comment about me. I'm a bit young.
7 - zingzing
"born free" rules my world.
8 - dimple
However this "education" isn't correct. The Tamil Tigers were a terrorist group. They killed innocent people, used them as human shields, etc. The Sri Lankan government isn't attacking Tamils, and no one is really holding any grudges against Tamils. She simply likes painting herself as the victim and big government as the corrupt dictator, when really the situation is neither so simple nor similar.