Here’s to rap’s mercenaries from N.W.A to Missy Elliott to Lil Jon, the off-the-map performers who defy rap’s boundaries. Maya Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., 28, is one of those. She’s sleek, fashionable, and looks like she spent years with Britney and Christina on the Micky Mouse club. Don’t be fooled. She may appear mainstream, but with her boundary-defying music, inspired by life in one the world’s most violent places, Maya proves she’s a true rap mercenary.
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Sri Lankan-born and London-brewed, she calls her music a “sketchbook of marginal sounds,” but a “breathless house party with every one of the world’s hippest dance cultures” is more accurate.
The single Galang is revolutionary because nothing sounds like it today, much like OutKast did with Bombs Over Bagdad several years ago. Maya’s slang-filled rapping, stuttering dancehall rhythms, and electronic sounds make for an intriguing, danceable combination. She adopts the Caribbean dialect in the song’s chorus and ends it with a Gregorian-like chant that may have been ad-libbed. It sounds amazing, regardless. A punk attitude permeates her lyrics, describing scenes of panic and violence in a darkly sexy way as she references the Clash‘s “London Calling.”
M.I.A. champions the marginalized because, as a Tamil, she fled Sri Lanka’s civil war at the age of 10. Dance floors are her soapboxes, whether it’s shouting out to the Palestinian Liberation Organization or sharing horror stories about drug dealers. She has used her platform to shed light on the struggles of refugees and immigrants and to be a voice for those who have been silenced. Her music calls for social justice and is a rallying cry of resilience and survival.
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Though many today decry politics’ pervasiveness in music, she raps from experience. She evokes parts of the world where anger and revolution have become part of life. She paints vivid pictures of those realities, providing listeners with a unique insight into the struggles of life in these places while still finding joy in a dance club that could be bombed at any moment.
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