M.I.A., born Mathangi Arulpragasam, is a highly polarizing artist of Sri Lankan descent. Arulpragasm, orginally an acclaimed visual artist, essentially stumbled into the music industry. Her first album, Arular, is critically acclaimed by several media outlets for its mix of pulsating beats, unique style, and symbolic lyricism. The main themes of that album are politics and society. With Kala, M.I.A pushes even further.
After listening to the Kala, I could clearly tell that M.I.A intended several main themes. Oppression, feminism, and politics are the key topics of the album. The album is a true counter-narrative; the song "Mango Pickle Down River" is mostly filled with raps from Aboriginal youths known as the Wilcannia Mob. The chorus, sung by these youths, talks about going to swim when it's hot and going fishing. I'm fairly sure that no mainstream musician would even consider children, let alone Aboriginal youths, basically have their own song.
M.I.A. continues the theme of making a voice for the unheard and neglected with many other songs.
"I don't read, yeah I just guess,
As the world turns, don't bother me with your mess"
-"The Turn"
"Sick of all the shit that's keeping me down,
If you're dead from the waist down, it's easy staying down,
I never thought about it twice,
But you do pay the price"
-"World Town"
While the two songs have similar messages, they take different approaches. "The Turn" is probably the closest thing that M.I.A. will have to a ballad. Its sparse beat already leads you to the conclusion that it is a sad song. The idea of the song is to learn and move on from ignorance. On the other hand, "World Town" is an extremely catchy and fun song that challenges oppression with the chorus of, "Hands up, Guns out, Represent, The World Town".
"How many no money boys are crazy, how many boys are raw,
How many no money boys are rowdy, how many start a war"
-"Boyz"
"People judge me so hard cause I don't floss my teeth set"
-"$20"
Both "Boyz" and "$20" have feminist points. Her words on "Boyz" in essence state that rich men start wars. Her lyrics on "$20" proclaim feminism and challenge the ignorance of popular culture with the lyrics such as,
"Like do you know the cost of AK's up in Africa, $20 ain't shit to you but that's how much they are."
The song I caught the most meaning from was "Bird Flu". While I didn't find the actual music and beat catchy or particularly interesting, I saw a ton of symbolism and messages in the lyrics. There are many examples, such as:
"Big on the underground, what's the point of knocking me down,
Everyone knows I'm already good on the ground"
-This alludes to the fact that she thinks she deserves mainstream stardom but gets pushed back.
"I need a man for romance,
Streets are making em hard, so they selfish little roamers,
Jumping girl to girl, making us meat like burgers"
-This is truly feminist; it speaks on the sexism of men
"Bird flu gonna get you, made it in my stable,
From the crap you drop on my crop when they pay you"
-We created our own problems as a society
Almost every song had a thumping, crazy, throbbing beat. M.I.A.'s use of many unusual instruments and sounds make Kala extremely different from normal hip-hop or dance to the point where it is fairly difficult to even classify it. From rare Indian samples to unusual Jamaican instruments, M.I.A. did her best to be truly distinct. When you combine it with her lyrics, M.I.A. is beyond a counter-narrative, alternative musician; she is in her own class.
Class, please let me know what you thought of the album. I didn't think it would be right to go through each song one by one and point out narratives so I just picked the ones that were most appealing to me. Overall, I enjoyed "World Town" the most.
Post by Eric Samaniego