M.I.A. first appeared on the US radar in 2005 with her debut LP Arular. Many critics commended her for the exhibition of political undertones and genre ambiguity. With her obvious hip-hop influences, M.I.A. could arguably be a leading hip-hop artist in overseas markets.
Several things distinguish M.I.A. from others in the US underground hip-hop scene—most notably genre-jumping, entertaining baselines, and lyrical simplicity. No question about it though, M.I.A.’s social consciousness content and her defiant musical “freedom fighting” call for revolution would make any underground lover proud.
It is not surprising, however, that after her US success, Maya Arulpragasam (aka M.I.A.) tested out a slightly different and perhaps less sophisticated style on her sophomore release Kala. At first listen, one would think that Kala is lacking the social consciousness content of the previous album. But, with lyrics like “How many no money boyz are crazy?/How many boyz are raw?/How many no money boyz are rowdy?/How may start a war?” in the single entitled Boyz, it’s safe to say that radical politics continue to be a thread-theme throughout M.I.A.’s lyrics.
The Timbaland production is apparent in the danceable beat and low but noticeable “c’mon” voiceover on Bamboo Banga—although his appearance on Come Around flops. Nevertheless, M.I.A. maintains the grittiness and raw feel that many came to love on her first album. Hustle elicits a completely different feeling than other songs written about hustling mainstream rap in the US. Instead of talking about flossing in the clubs, and the general glory of becoming rich, M.I.A. says “I hate money it makes me numb”—which is solid, lyrical radicalism a-la-M.I.A.!
While many consumers lauded her accomplishment on Paper Planes, this has to be one of the least remarkable of the songs on the Kala project. In fact, when you get right down to it, the overall affect of Kala is disappointing when compared to M.I.A’s debut LP. Simply put, the beats are anemic and mediocre; the lyrics childishly simple and repetitive, production quality is lacking and with less substantive content. To put it mildly, Kala sounds incomplete and artistically lacking in many of the ways that made Arular a hit.
More Listen In Rewinds
© Kimberlee Morrison 2007 for Listen In. Some rights reserved.
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
You must log in to post a comment.