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M.I.A. Found Hip-Hop Via Thieves, Thinks U.S. Music Is Too Digital: Exclusive Audio

8/23/07, 6:06 pm EST


Sri Lankan rapper and singer M.I.A. recently sat down with Rolling Stone associate editor Brian Hiatt to discuss her new album, Kala (check out our video and written reviews). The globe-trotting MC chatted about everything from her childhood crackhead neighbors to her obsession with “organic” sounding music. Here’s a bit of their interview:


  • M.I.A. has a gang of thieves to thank for introducing her to hip-hop: “I’d have this radio I’d listen to every night before I went to bed … The next door neighbors, they were like these sort of Irish crackhead kids, and they broke into our house and they stole everything, and they stole my radio. The day they stole my radio is when I started hearing hip-hop through the walls of next door … I was just hearing basslines and shit like that. And then it was Public Enemy, because then I got to know it, and I was listening to anything rap music.”

  • M.I.A. discusses the making of “Boyz” and “Bird Flu” and her obsession with an “organic” sound: “When I made ‘Boyz’ and ‘Bird Flu,’ I felt like it was a really weird sound. I [felt like I] have to make this sound, because I can hear it and I’m going to do it and it’s just crazy and it’s an experiment. All the music that’s going on [in the U.S.] is this just-beats dance music style … you don’t have organicness in the sound of your music, and everything’s getting really digital-sounding. I felt, ‘Shit, I’m the only person that’s going to make one organic-sounding thing in music, and maybe it just won’t translate.’”

  • M.I.A. discusses her reintroduction to America after recording Kala all around the world: “One week you’re in India, and it’s like a thousand cockroaches in your suitcase, and you can hear them breathe because they’re so big, and the next minute you’re in Beverly Hills, and it’s like a mansion. When I went to Jimmy [Iovine, her label boss]’s house to play him the stuff, he had a team of sixteen-year-olds there doing a cheerleading competition … as soon as I went in, they were screaming, ‘Oh my God, it’s M.I.A.’”


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Comments

on topic | 8/23/2007, 6:38 pm EST

Her album sucks, actually. She can’t rap and can’t really sing and, judging from all the lyric biting, can’t come up with her own words, either.

dan | 8/24/2007, 6:47 am EST

her album does not suck

lancer | 8/24/2007, 7:38 am EST

its not really about her lyrics or her rap skills or her singing, its just the sound in general that she creates is so original and so off the wall all at once… its quite refreshing

naphy | 8/24/2007, 10:48 am EST

i didn’t hear her whole album yet but the songs that she put out so far are bomb, i breath music and what she produces is MUSIC, i love her sound and her stlye and thats what makes her really original.

BAMBOO BANGA | 8/24/2007, 4:13 pm EST

M.I.A.’s sounds and lyrics are what make her different than everyone else. Shes seen things almost none of americans have. She is an ICON!

UNA | 8/24/2007, 4:40 pm EST

LADY LIBERTY LOVES ONE AND ALL

bukowski | 8/24/2007, 6:10 pm EST

De-Lite . . .
I coudn’t ask for another,
I,I,I,I,I . . .
No, I couldn’t ask for another
I,I,I,I,I . . .

tkshot | 8/24/2007, 11:31 pm EST

I think she rocks, here in Arg she’s not that popular, but I’ve heard her music and it reminds me of something like a mix between techno, pop and the simplicity of Bjork’s lyrics. xoxo!

The Truth | 8/26/2007, 3:33 pm EST

wow, she almost exactly opposite of her music. Her music is so persistantly annoying you want to shoot your brains out, and she talks so persistantly boring you want to kill everyone, then kill yourself. horrible.

lucia | 8/28/2007, 9:07 am EST

amazing…amazing…amazing. That’s what I have to say about her.

acihvpm zdbhof | 8/31/2007, 2:34 pm EST

aznwkd extaylpm wcvmepkx vfrpuwtz mzeckdbsy ljiqwo lftcwpoy

lashay | 10/17/2007, 10:34 am EST

wow i have been sitting here in this chair for like 5 hours playing kala over and i have been on her from the day i heard her song on “out”
all my friends luv her she is so what music is about change
she speaks her mind and has a lot of things to say she is not a doll with a robots hand in her butt
(i’ll keep it PG)
i luv her look up all her words while you listen to her songs and there is no way you cant love her
great beats words she and her music are a ten
and i luv the way she dress just like me

Alex | 11/3/2007, 4:00 am EST

OK I am unofficially M.I.A.’s biggest fan. Maya as a person and her music just get me in a way beyond music, right to my soul–I think its her whole survivalism undertone that she talks about. Diplo is probably an a-hole for letting her go. Rock on Maya! And oh by the way, KALA is sweet.

kelsey | 5/5/2008, 8:32 pm EST

i have been sitting hear listening to all these and i have listened to arular and kala AND diplo remixes a thousand times and ALL the lyrics and beats are awesome cause they are so different from all this american shit. fave artist for sure!

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