M.I.A.
 

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Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam (born 17 July 1977) is a British vocalist, record producer, songwriter/composer and visual artist. She is a Tamilian of Sri Lankan descent. Best known by her stage name, M.I.A., her work in music often features a range of elements of genres.

An accomplished visual artist by 2002, M.I.A. came to prominence in early 2004 through file-sharing of her singles "Galang" and "Sunshowers" on the Internet. In 2005, her debut album, Arular, was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her second album, Kala, was released in 2007.
ALBUMS:

• Arular (2005)http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi.../0f/Arular.jpg
• Kala (2007)http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...a/Mia-kala.jpg

She's an AMAZING artist. This music, when compared to pop, feels so raw, so alive. Her lyrics draw from her home country of Sri Lanka and global politics, a bit different from talking about getting it on and dancing in the club. Since her father is a terrorist, she is on the United States Homeland Security Watch list. She currently resides in Brooklyn, working on new material and DJing. For more info on her, actually quite interesting, life, search her up on Wikipedia. This kind of music needs to more popular.

Never heard of her? Check these songs out:

SINGLES:
Sunshowers (Great earthy jungle song)
Bucky Done Gun (Great in ya face beat)
Galang (Great turn it up "clap ya hands" song)
Bird Flu (A bit wierd at first listen, but great nonetheless)
Boyz (One of my favorites. Great song to see live or dance to, hip-hop style)
Jimmy (A throwback to disco with a modern twist. Used to promote Don't Mess With The Zohan in previews)
Paper Planes (Her most known song. ADDICTING AS HECK)

GREAT ALBUM - ONLY SONGS:
The whole Arular album (Amazon and 10 Dollar are my favs)
The whole Kala album (XR2 and World Town are my favs)
She also did a duet called Come Around, which is REALLY good, and one of her few songs about sex.

Yes, this thread is biased, but give her a shot. She's great! She writes all of her lyrics and has a (rather) large part in producing her songs! :)

Ehh. I loved Arular and still do, but I lost interest around the release of Kala.
I do salute her, though.

To Criminal: Oh, really? A lot of critics think Kala's better than Arular. I actually think it is, but I guess it's a matter of preference. Kala sounds a bit different from Arular.

You know, when I think about it, I like Arular more. But have you heard Bird Flu? That's really traditional in terms of the "agressive island beat."

I absolutely adore Come Around. It's not my type of thing either but it really appeals to me for some reason. That's about all I like by her though. Paper Planes is alright, but Boyz is definitely on my "worst songs of all-time" list.

Really? I love Boyz! It's a really energetic song!

Yeah, the video was playing when I was in American Eagle and I hated it so much that I had to leave the store :laugh

Well, the video isn't great...
My favorite video from her is "Sunshowers"...

True Dat!

I remember when I saw the Galang video on TV. I must've been in elementary school. :P
I think that was one of the two times I've ever seen Arular videos on TV. Jimmy and Paper Planes got lots of airtime on MTV, though.

I absolutely LOVED "Arular" back in 2005, but I thought "Kala" was a bit overrated. I still like her, though.

Favorite songs:

10 Dollar
20 Dollar
Galang
Fire Fire
The Turn
Paper Planes
Sunshowers

M.I.A is awesome!I love Bucky Done Gun!

Kinda old, but she may be retiring.

http://perezhilton.com/2008-06-15-retiring

i loooooove world town. so awesome. i hope she isn't retiring though.

I liked Paper Planes, and I youtubed her a while ago. Nice sound. I'll take the recommendations in this thread and download some more ;)