so since i'm forcing myself to write everyday this week and i don't fully expect anyone to actually read these shit, i'm going to ramble (yet again) on a topic near and dear to my heart.  

it's no great secret that i am obsessed with the musical artist m.i.a.  beyond her sick beats and badass lyrics, she's some one making music that's managed to both hit the mainstream and stay original, novel, and political.  you can't really separate m.i.a.'s music from her biography so i will offer a short one here:

maya was born in london but returned to sri lanka with her family when she was 6 months old.  her father was actively involved in the tamil resistance to the oppressive sri lankan government and her family was forced to move from village to village to escape persecution.  after her school was burned down, maya and her family returned to the uk as political refugees.  she went on to study art, spending long periods of time both in the uk and the us.  

for me, m.i.a.'s music is remarkable in that it reflects the diversity of perspectives that are present within her own biography.  one album takes you from old school hip hop to dancehall to reggaeton and back.  further, the lyrics only serve to reflect both the differences and also the similarities between vastly different peoples and perspectives.  a common thread tends to tie things together: questions of class, oppression and violence.  from 'pull up the people', 'world town' and '20 dollar' with their overt populist messages to more subtle characters like those in 'paper planes' (if you can call it subtle), and 'sunshowers' ("like PLO i don't surrenda"), you see a fierce solidarity with both those in the third world and in the under world of the us and the uk.  

so recently another rapper of sri lankan descent, DeLon, accused m.i.a. of supporting terrorism.  he argues that the tiger imagery present throughout her work implies a support of the LTTE (also known as the tamil tigers, see the connection?), a tamil group currently engaged in a war with the government of sri lanka.  basically the LTTE wants it's own territory in light of the historic and ongoing oppression of the tamil people by the government.  mind you, the LTTE has assassinated foreign politicians and engaged in suicide bombings at home.  and the government has indeed silenced and killed probably hundreds of thousands of tamils and engaged in horrific acts of violence (lets just say that the burning of schools with children inside was not an isolated incidence).  so frankly for some one label the LTTE as terrorist without that label being applied on the acts of the government is at best hypocritical and at worst actively misleading.  

further, to argue that because m.i.a. uses a tiger in her art and even some violent images (she DID grow up in a war zone after all) she is supporting terrorism is certainly out of bounds.  yes her father was/is actively involved in the resistance movement.  so fucking what?  this is the same argument that pigeonholes the entire palestinian people into one huge class of terrorists.  and to argue that m.i.a., who clearly was hugely affected by her childhood, should remain mute or alternatively argue for both sides of the struggle is simply infantile.  she is a musician speaking of her experience, her history, and her life.

most generally sane people have come to m.i.a.'s defense, stating (correctly) that she has denounced the terrorist acts of the LTTE and has absolutely no ties with their association, actual or implied.  her music is not an endorsement of their actions or acts, or even their goals (because i think we can separate the somewhat nobel goal of fighting historic oppression from the tactics often used i.e. suicide bombing).  everyone is just climbing all over themselves to attest to m.i.a.'s impartiality.  

but this is an oversimplification as well, and a harmful one, although it is certainly important for selling albums in the 21st century.  nothing will kill your career like being called a terrorist.  m.i.a. DOES take sides and she comes down squarely on the side of those fighting oppression, those existing and thriving in difficult or impossible circumstances.  here we have a burgeoning mainstream artist making the vast majority of her latest album in third world countries with the participation of kids in villages, local artists and dancers, and even animals (baaa-cock).  to say that m.i.a. is neutral when it comes to this type of struggle (against colonization, both neo- and not so neo, against poverty, against globalization of culture and music) takes away both what makes her so special and powerful.  

m.i.a. is a musician.  she talks a bit about just wanting to make music.  other people label her a freedom fighter.  this may be an over-stretch, but maybe not.  her music in and of itself is fighting to give a voice to the voiceless ("i put people on a map who've never seen a map /  i show them something they've never seen and hope they make it back"), fighting to humanize those that too many view as distinctly "other": those kids you can hear rapping over some 'didge', the woman seducing every man in sight ("my finger tips and the lips do the work / yah", and the hustler ("some some some i murder....").  

i can't think of any higher compliment for an artist: you give a voice to the voiceless.  to hide all this under the veneer of political correctness required to sell albums would be a crime.  so keep doing you gurl, and i can't wait until the next album drops.