M.I.A. and a Crew of Badass Australian Girls Team Up for Protest Song

Yesterday we told you that M.I.A. hit up an Australian juvenile detention center and teamed up with young girls there to record a new track. The globe-trotting MC spent three days with girls from the Heaps Decent program (which helps indigenous and underprivileged kids break into the music biz), banging on doors and other surfaces to produce a beat. "We made a snap record," M.I.A. explains. "I tried to make a real Clash-y song, and make a protest song for them, but I had to make a censored version and a non-censored version and play the school the censored version where they're not swearing. Then I got them to make something that they wanted to make, where they're talking about being gangster and getting over police mind control," she adds (the final track will appear on the Heaps Decent MySpace page before hitting iTunes, where all proceeds will go back to the program). According to M.I.A., at first the girls were suspicious of her, but she won them over with her snazzy outfit — "shiny leggings with a No Limit Records T-shirt with Master P's face" — and by cursing. "They didn't think I was too cool when I walked in," M.I.A. recalls. "And I was swearing when I was talking to them, and they loved it. The girls actually liked me for me saying, 'If you want to say 'fuck,' go ahead and say 'fuck,' I don't give a shit.' They were all like, 'Yeah!'"

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Song Stories

“Time to Pretend”

MGMT | 2008

Listening to MGMT’s breakthrough song, one might interpret it as being about the excesses of rock stardom, but it’s actually about the duo’s pet praying mantis. Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden told Rolling Stone they got the idea from the insect's jerky movements. The mantis died, but the two bandmates kept the egg sack and allowed the hundreds of eggs to hatch. “We tried to name them all, but they died after a day,” said Goldwasser, with VanWyngarden chiming in, “But the praying mantis dance inspired us.”

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