Slumdog Millionaire Reminds Us Why We Still Love M.I.A.
What complex feelings we have towards M.I.A. The Sri Lankan-British rapper (sort of) has said some bone-headed things about missing the days when she used to get shot at and made crazy contract demands, and married a rich guy. So that was annoying! But then there's her music. The music. It's really good. Like the soundtrack in the new Danny Boyle film Slumdog Millionaire. It's kinetic as ever and, unlike when her song "Paper Planes" was featured in Pineapple Express ads, the tales she spins of third-world ghetto kids actually make sense within the context. To the extent that Slumdog feels like it's a different view of the Bombay slums, M.I.A.'s music throughout the film deserves plenty of the credit. "If I was painting a picture of that part of the world, it’s not that I’d make it more glum, but I would try not to involve all the positive stuff from it, like the singing and dancing and easy stuff," she tells the LAT's Pop & Hiss blog. "I think we’re already used to that, and comfortable with that part." Those Pineapple television spots made M.I.A. a star (not unlike Feist's iPod Nano ads), but when the visuals match the aurals, you can get a better sense of her lyrics and beats and crazy sounds and all that good stuff that almost makes us forget about her cave-aged Gruyère needs. Almost.