I was crazy late to the table with M.I.A. When she was first breaking, I believe I sneerily wrote her off as another hipster-touted flavor of the month who'd soon join countless others on the where-are-they-now heap six months later. Well, I was wrong about that. Girl's got some staying power. I warmed to her breakout single, "Paper Planes" -- thanks in large quantities to its infectious recycling of the intro to "Straight To Hell" by ye olde Clash -- quite some time after its release and subsequent high-profile placement in 2008's "Slumdog Millionaire." She made headlines recently by calling out Lady Gaga for being unoriginal - -which, honestly, is really pretty rich from someone whose hits sample records from a couple of decades ago, but that's an age-old grievance.
Speaking of which, M.I.A.'s newest single, "Born Free" is basically to Suicide's "Ghost Rider" what MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This" was to Rick James' "Superfreak." That doesn't really matter – it definitely rocks (and if you're going to sample artists, by all means make them awesome ones like Suicide & The Clash) , but take a look at the promotional video for same. I'm all for pushing the envelope and all that, but this clip blazes new frontiers in needlessly contrived gratuitousness. Oh yeah, you probably shouldn't watch it at the office. Not for the faint of heart.
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