Mon 30 Jan 2012
M.I.A. Is Back With “Bad Girls”: But Are We Still Entertained?
Posted by Miss Info under About Miss Info , Fashion , Hmmm? , Life Beyond Rap , New Music , Things I Ehh[27] Comments
By the end of this week, M.I.A. will have been on American Idol (premiering Madonna’s “Give Me All Your Lovin'” video with her and Nicki Minaj), and at the halftime show of the Superbowl. How in the world can you possibly even pretend to be some kind of edgy anti-establishment fight-the-power “bad girl” at this point? But M.I.A. is still hanging onto her hipster metrocard, despite her billion-dollar baby, and upcoming hank-williams-jr astroturf status.
And just in time to confuse the Middle Americans who will be tuning in to watch “Madonner” between bites of cheesy bread on Sunday…M.I.A. drops “Bad Girls,” (via Pitchfork) the lead single for her upcoming 4th album. The song is produced by Danja (Timbaland’s “co”-producer) and sounds pretty much like you’d expect. It’s not horrible. It’s just disappointing.
“Bad Girls” sounds like Gwen Stefani adopting another new ethnicity, or Eve giving it another go with whoever Dr. Dre has locked in his basement, or Kreyshawn doing an Old Navy ad. Zzzz. But with all of the new things that M.I.A. has seen/been bought/been fed in the last few years of her interesting journey…I’d think she’d be able to pull up some of that rich girl rage and act out. (Like with that nutty “Born Free” video) We’ll see what happens with Friday’s “Bad Girl” video debut, also by “Born Free” director Romain Gavras. Will there be black humor and apocalyptic violence? Or just multi-culti kitsch and bad Islamic calligraphy fonts. Oh, wait…that’s already on the single art.
Listen to M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls”….after the jump
New Music: M.I.A. “Bad Girls” (produced by Danja, off the upcoming Maya album)
PS: “Bad Girls” is a finished version of a song off M.I.A.’s most recent mixtape, Vicki Leekx. I guess even if the new album doesn’t deliver, a new promo run promises a new season of M.I.A. crazy talk. That’s one of my favorite things. Remember the backhanded Jay-Z comments and the Lady Gaga diss?
PPS: How hamtastic do you think this Superbowl show will be? Madonna is doing “Gimme All Your Luvvin,” “Ray of Light” and “Vogue.” All safe. Where’s her signature advertiser abuse going to come from?!
Related:
Madonna Previews “Give Me All Your Luvin” With Nicki Minaj & M.I.A. (Video)
New Music: M.I.A. “27″ (Amy Winehouse Dedication)
New Mixtape: M.I.A. Vicki Leekx
M.I.A. performs “Born Free” on David Letterman, talks about working w/ Nicki Minaj etc
M.I.A. talks to Angie Martinez: I like both Jay-Z and Nas, but…people respect Nas [even though] he’s not a private-jet yacht kind of guy
New Video: M.I.A. “Born Free” (Not Safe for Work)
What’s Beef: M.I.A. on Lady Gaga “She sounds more like me than I f–king do!”
January 30th, 2012 at 3:40 pm
bad girls is not from /\/\/\Y/\
MAYA is her album from 2010
January 30th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
UGH! I need coffee….I got her new project mixed up. thanks for the correction. fixing now
January 30th, 2012 at 5:28 pm
i told you she was done Info!
January 30th, 2012 at 5:42 pm
🙂
January 30th, 2012 at 7:48 pm
i kinda like the beat, but i agree its a little disappointing. its not horrible, just not great, and not really doin that much artistically
January 30th, 2012 at 7:53 pm
to be clear, we we’re NEVER entertained…
(at least those of us in our right musical minds weren’t)
January 30th, 2012 at 10:40 pm
Dare I say it? She kind of reminds of a young 2pac. Good show madam!
January 30th, 2012 at 11:04 pm
/\/\.|./\ !!YeA!!
January 31st, 2012 at 1:32 am
yep.
“Paper Planes” had a CRAZY beat though. one of the most memorable of the 2005 – 2010s, easily.
but still, she was crapola. and now the masses are bored.
January 31st, 2012 at 2:11 am
Well I’m an MIA fan and her dual like life is pretty fascinating. I loved this song on the Vicki Leekz tape. Even though it took me a while to really like her MAYA album, im always looking forward to what she does, and says.
January 31st, 2012 at 2:45 am
lmao
January 31st, 2012 at 8:31 am
You know what, I don’t think its bad…its an entertaining song and by the end of the song the beat pulled me in. I don’t think her marrying the billionaire hurt her image…look at Jay Z and how far he has came. The video on the other hand might be pretty wild, but hey that’s her creativity…I rather have a crazy wild video like her usual then a video I seen 80 times last year.
January 31st, 2012 at 9:05 am
im def looking forward to the video…mainly bc I think romain gavras is incredible and their last collaboration “born free” was nuts. (as in insane…but interesting)
January 31st, 2012 at 1:27 pm
Vicki Leekx was tuff but this right here is trash, so was that damn born free video.
Did you see Santigold’s ‘big mouth’ video? Sigh!
Our one time hipsters are no longer hip :S
January 31st, 2012 at 4:30 pm
The beat is sick…lyrics are typical M.I.A…wouldn’t really say I’m a fan but I like her chit. The beat is crazy though..maybe Jay cna hop on this like the paper planes tune.
January 31st, 2012 at 11:21 pm
It’s better than I expected actually. I don’t really resent MIA for being a hypocrite – she’s one of a million. Song is kinda hot actually. That Hirschberg piece, by the way, was a hatchet job.
February 1st, 2012 at 7:23 pm
she’s wack yo! always has been! beats,swag & the look save her life ( as with many others ) …& then when she got exposed by that journalist/blogger whatever…and was so salty she did some childish shit & tweeted her # I was like she’s FINISHED! I thought marrying a rich man would seal that, but she’s back I guess…
February 3rd, 2012 at 3:48 pm
People shouldn’t bother reviewing M.I.A until whole package served up. Bad Girls video is untouchable, the track becomes untouchable. This bitch isn’t only about audio, she never was.
Get your burqa out.
February 4th, 2012 at 3:35 pm
who ever write this piece is so off the mark its unreal. for starters, the track is awesome. secondly, the video is epic beyond belief and thirdly, just cos m.i.a. is successful and has been asked to work with the likes of madonna and perform on such a big show, does;t make her stance or personal beliefs invalid. she can’t tear down babylon without becoming part of it first. CTFO.
February 4th, 2012 at 3:37 pm
since when was she crapola? speak for yourselves guys, she’s always been miles ahead of everyone else. a truly global artist. i been following her for nearly ten years, you don;t know what you;re talking about
February 4th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
who ever wrote this piece is so off the mark its unreal. for starters, the track is awesome. secondly, the video is epic beyond belief and thirdly, just cos m.i.a. is successful and has been asked to work with the likes of madonna and perform on such a big show, doesn’t make her stance or personal beliefs invalid. just cos she is married to someone wealthy doesn’t mean she can’st stand for what she always stood for, what a totally ridiculous and completely irrelevant comment. that whole new york times thing was such a stupid fiasco. besides,she can’t tear down babylon without becoming part of it first. m.i.a.’s music has always been at the forefront in electronic innovation, underground scenes and she’s always had her finger on the pulse when it comes to global dance styles and striking edgy videos. her visual style has influenced countless other videos and artists in the last seven years. so CTFO.
February 4th, 2012 at 7:13 pm
What do you think of the video Info? I had totally written this single off but after watching the video I fell in love with it! Such a cool video and Maya is looking so hot! Shows the right visuals can change everything.
February 4th, 2012 at 9:54 pm
so wait, she can’t sing, rap, write, or dance that well, but she’s miles ahead of everyone else? ok, right.
February 6th, 2012 at 9:14 pm
well, yes, just cos you don’t like her style, doesn’t mean she can’t do any of the things you’ve just listed… in a lot of people’s eyes she is great at all of those things. there is no one else like her. she’s also trailblazer a lot of styles of music that no one in th west had heard of til m.i.a. brought them to our ears. name another major female artists making music influenced by dance hall, baile funk, kuduro and god knows what else seven years ago??? she’s a fantastic artist, both visually and sonically. just cos you don’t like or get something doesn’t mean it’s shit. she embodied a huge art of the east london scene at a time when things were really exciting there as well. but then again, i suppose she should sing and dance like gaga or aguilera right?
February 6th, 2012 at 10:25 pm
x
February 6th, 2012 at 10:27 pm
let me clear up a couple of mistakes in reasoning you’ve made in trying to analyze my points. firstly, it’s not because i don’t like her style that she can’t do any of the things i listed. she can’t do them well because she simply can’t do them well – it has nothing to do with me.
secondly (and from a logical standpoint this is related to the first point), it’s not because i don’t like (and definitely not because i don’t “get”) M.I.A. that she’s shit. she’s shit, in my opinion, because she’s shit. again, it has nothing to do with me.
thirdly, supposing it’s true that she’s helped bring the influences you mentioned to the mainstream, when it’s all said and done THE MUSIC STILL HAS TO BE GOOD. and from what i’ve heard of her music it’s just not very good.
for me, the problem with artists like M.I.A. is that the current musical landscape is so littered with talentless hacks, dickriders, biters, and other soulless cretins that when someone comes along and does something “different” people (like you) are so quick to hail them as geniuses and great without really assessing whether the songs are any good. but hey, if you like artists that place a premium on style as opposed to substance, more power to ya!
björk, for example, is different, but she also is a uniquely talented and inventive songwriter and SINGER. in other words, you can take away the awesomeness of her videos, album artwork, costumes, and even her music and björk will still blow you away with just her voice. shit, even an artist like, say, janet jackson: take away all of her stylistic elements and she would still be amazing from a performance standpoint.
can you honestly say the same things about M.I.A.? what are you left with if you take away her style? [i’ll wait while you dream up an answer…]
to be sure, there are plenty of female artists in my iTunes and Spotify that can’t sing, dance, rap, or write that well. the difference between you and me, however, is that i don’t go around claiming they’re the greatest thing since sliced fucking bread and getting my panties in a bunch when people call them out for being rubbish.
June 20th, 2012 at 9:45 pm
OMG thank you! i thought i was the only one seeing her for what she is. i dont understand why people just dont get the fact that she cant sing for shit. everyone thinks its the new style.